Secondhand Skyfall
by kaljara
Summary: Elodie Chambers' existence was forbidden. As the youngest in a set of identical twins, she spent most of her life hidden away while her perfect sister roamed the Ark freely. But on Wednesdays, Elodie posed as Eden so she too could feel free. That is, until a certain goggled boy discovered their secret and sealed the twins' fate-they were criminals now, Earth-bound, part of the 100.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue: Along Came Trouble**

My first memory was of darkness. It was the kind of darkness that swallowed you whole, the kind of darkness that stole the words clogging your throat. I don't remember how I got there, wedged into the tiny crawl space behind the metal paneling in my parents' closet, but it felt like I had been there always. Like maybe I had grown out of the very walls that surrounded me.

It was cold, and I was swaddled in a thin woolen blanket that was scratchy against my skin. There was another body pressed against mine, tiny and warm, the only thing that kept me from crying out.

When I got older, I realized that the person next to me had been been my sister, and she hadn't been pressing close to me to keep me warm-she had been trying to steal my blanket.

To be honest, that event still described our relationship.

Eden had always wanted what was best for herself-the best clothing and the best food, the most of our parents' love and the title of most doting pupil. She never hesitated to trample others on her way to success. In fact, that seemed like all she knew how to do.

But everyone loved her, myself included, even though at times I wished to be the one standing in the light of day.

~XxX~

When Earth was on the path to its final destruction, a group of wise men and women created something called the Ark, a space station to house the remainder of humanity. It was ingenious. And it was the only salvation for those left, so it had to be.

But the Ark was a harsh place to live. Everything was rationed-clothing, food, and even air. Any crime, no matter how small, was punishable by death. Those who didn't follow the law were Floated, no questions asked. Life was fleeting and expendable, and humanity had lost its will to think otherwise. Those under the age of eighteen were granted a special kind of leniency-they were awarded prison cells for their crimes instead of the airless vacuum that was space. But as soon as their eighteenth birthday rolled around, there was nothing that could save them from being Floated.

Another one of the strict laws forbade families from having more than one child. That was the law that slammed into my family like a physical force when my mother found out she was having twins. My mother was immediately terrified, and my father was as well. Twins were practically unheard of. It had been nearly fifty years since a pair had been born, and because of the poor conditions we all lived in, the youngest had died soon after birth. Of course, the news was kept strictly between my parents and my mother's doctor, Abigail Griffin. My mother was convinced that she should have the pregnancy terminated completely to avoid any conflict with the law, but my father pleaded with her to reconsider.

My mother relunctantly agreed to carry my sister and I to full term, and when the time for our birth came, my father was the only one present. Trained as a medical assistant, he delivered both my sister and I without any sort of issue. The only problem was, unlike Abby had predicted, both of us were completely healthy. Somehow, as the younger, tinier child, I had clung to life with a stubborness that I would carry for the rest of my life.

Moira, my mother, was hysterical. She only wanted her eldest daughter-she had never asked for two girls, she had told my father, crying. She had never meant to unintentionally break the law. She didn't want to be Floated. Moira refused to name me when the time came. She called my identical, older twin sister Eden. She was to be perfect in every sense of the word, just like the land she was named after. My father had been the only one to hold me that day, and the name Elodie had struck a chord in his heart, so that was what I was called. It meant 'foreign riches', I learned later on. _You were my special surprise, Elz. You needed a special name, _he had whispered to me one day when I was still small.

That was when I still felt special, like something with worth.

After the quick delivery, my parents made a joint decision-they would tell Abby that I had been a stillborn at birth, and my mother didn't even have the chance to hold me or name me before my father had my tiny corpse Floated. That was the lie that saved me, much to my mother's chagrin. The thought of breaking the law terrified her so much that I became something that she resented. Eden was constantly in her arms, and she refused to even address me by my name. There was a crawl space hidden behind a loose metal slab in their closet, and when inspections went on or the atmosphere of the Ark was off, that was where I spent six days out of every week.

Since Eden was the first born and my mother's favorite, she got to experience the Ark in all of its glory, every single day. Well, except for Wednesday. My father and mother bickered about it, but it had eventually been decided that Wednesday would be my day to interact with the world. Just one day out of every week, I would be allowed to see the Ark and its inhabitants, and I wouldn't have to worry about being discovered.

I was instructed to pretend to be my sister, on these days. My father had taken me by the shoulders and told me that if anyone found out that I was not Eden, I would be taken away from them forever and he and my mother would be Floated. Just the thougtht of my father dying was enough to scare me into complete compliance. I learned all of Eden's mannerisms-her nasally giggle and the way that she always talked with her hands, the way she tapped her foot when she was anxious and the half-smirk she gave when she thought she was being clever. I knew Eden better than she knew herself, and I blended well. No one ever thought I was someone else, even in those earlier days of me attending school.

My father was impressed, and my mother remained indifferent toward me. She still said, 'you' when talking to me. That, or she purposely called me Eden. It was almost as if she thought not acknowledging my existence would make me not real. Moira's behavior toward me slowly began to reflect in my sister as well. Eden didn't want to go into the Den (what I had dubbed the crawl space) on Wednesdays. "It's not fair," she had pouted. "Wednesday is the only day we do plays, and Elodie is there for every single one of them!" Never mind that I always came home and recited her the plays, asking if she wanted to reenact them with me. Eden grew to resent me almost as much as my mother did, and I felt alone.

Even my father began to distance himself from me as I grew older. He began to distance himself from everyone, in fact. His dark eyes no longer gleamed with the mirth they once had, and his conversations with me were few and far between. I still held onto the hope that I was his favorite, because without it, I felt like I would die. Who was I if I wasn't my father's special girl? I was just a burden to my mother, a hinderance to my sister, and nonexistent to the people of the Ark. Even when I was out in public, I was known as Eden Chambers. No one knew of Elodie, the secret girl that was never wanted, the second daughter that ruined everything.

We held the same pattern for years, up until the Unity Day masquerade one month before our seventeenth birthday. My father had allowed me to go instead of my sister, the first time I had ever been out on a day other than Wednesday. Eden had pouted, of course, utilizing her big brown eyes in a way that I had never tried with my own. "It's a mask party, Daddy. I don't want to miss it! Can't we both go?"

My father had looked like he was considering it.

"Don't even think about it, Zander," my mother had snapped, trying to the best of her ability to scrub the dirt out of the laundry she had collected from the Ark earlier that day. Her blue eyes had been hard. "Pick one of them to go. If someone sees how much they look alike, it's all over. It will be the end of all of us." She had raked a hand through her thick red curls and sighed, avoiding looking at me.

It had been decided that I would go, since I had never experienced any of the Unity Day celebrations other than the history lesson we learned in school. I had pulled on a gray frock dress that had once belonged to my mother, with faded black tights and my worn boots that laced up to my knees. My father had crafted me a mask out of the gauze strips that had been alotted to our family, touching it up with a few well place feathers snagged from my pillow. "Have a good time, Elodie," he had whispered. My hair fell freely around my shoulders, out of the usual ponytail that Eden wore, and he wrapped a strand of it around his finger. "You look like a princess, my special girl."

I had remembered hugging him tightly, and then wandering, in a daze, down to the festivities. There had been several people I thought I recognized, but the masks and the pulsing lights made everything slightly distorted. I had danced as Eden, finding her friends and shrieking along with them to the music. It had been the most fun I'd ever had, and for a moment, I had forgotten that I was supposed to be my sister. A boy had grabbed me by the wrist, spinning me around in a circle slowly. I had giggled, looking up at him. He had dirty blonde hair and bright green eyes framed by a red cloth mask, and the devilish smirk on his lips had completely undone me. "I'm Drew!" he had called over the music. His hands had crept down to settle on my waist. I hadn't minded it. "What's your name?"

"I'm El-" I had frozen, the rhythm of the music crashing over me like tsunami. Fear had wedged itself between my ribcage. I'd almost given myself away.

"What was that?" Drew had asked, leaning in closer. "Sorry, this damn music is too loud."

"Eden. My name is Eden," I had finally breathed. I sighed and pushed Drew's hands off my waist. "Sorry, but I-I have to go. My family is strict about curfew." That, at least, wasn't a lie. I had seen disappointment flash in his eyes, and I wound my fingers in the thin material of my frock. "Maybe I'll see you around, though?" I had called back, trying to send him a smile.

Drew had grinned back and nodded, wriggling his way back through the crowd, and then I was running torward the exit. I was nearly around the corner when I saw a guard drag a dark haired girl behind him down the hallway.

It was only later, when I was knestled safely into the Den, that I heard my parents murmuring about what had happened. The girl that I had seen being dragged away was named Octavia Blake, and she was an illegal child, daughter of Aurora Blake and sister to the guard that had tried to save her, Bellamy. Aurora was designated to be Floated the next morning for her crime, Bellamy was being demoted to a janitor's position for his part in the deception, and Octavia was to be imprisoned with all the other juvenile deliquents aboard the Ark. For simply existing.

Something had clenched in my heart then, a kind of fear that I had never known. A girl like me had been damned to a fate she didn't deserve, and now there was no question in my mind-if they found out about me, my family would be killed, and my sister and I would be imprisoned. The Council made no exceptions.

The name scare earlier had put me on edge, but the news about Octavia Blake terrified me.

And as it turned out, things were about to get much, much worse...

**Hello! So I told myself I wasn't going to start this, since I'm currently working on two other stories, but hey, this idea was bouncing around in my head after I marathoned the first season of the 100. And I have no self control, so here-have a story! My name is Harley, and I'd love if you guys would review to let me know what you think. Also, I'm currently working on two Teen Wolf fics, so if you're interested, feel free to check those out. Thanks so much for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1: Freefall**

The paranoia had gotten to be too much for my parents. After Octavia Blake was placed into the Sky Box, I was no longer allowed to leave the Den unless there was some sort of emergency. Just the thought of being trapped in the tight space day and night, cramped and always cold, made my stomach churn. I wouldn't be allowed to go to school on Wednesdays anymore. My father had apologized to me profusely. "It's for the best, Elodie," he had murmured. "At least for now."

Eden mostly just seemed happy she could participate in the Wednesday plays, but she did bring my food into the Den every meal time, a guilty little smile on her lips. Our new routine was painful, especially for me, but it eased my parents' minds, it made Eden happy, and that was all that mattered, wasn't it? That was what I tried to tell myself, at least, until a week passed, and then another. My back ached from being shoved against the metal wall for so long, and my eyesight blurred dangerously since I had been reading by a lone sliver of light for hours. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer.

I pushed the metal slab off of the wall and toppled out into my parents' closet, my legs tangling in their threadbare wardrobe. My chest was heaving, and my tattered, long-sleeved blue shirt clung to me with icy sweat. Anger thrummed through my veins, as much a part of me as my actual blood. Never before had I disobeyed my parents like this. My father was working on an important surgery with Abby Griffin, and my mother was off gathering laundry to clean from our section of the Ark.

I climbed to my feet, the muscles in my legs protesting. I had to lean against the wall for a few moments, trying to ease my breathing and gather my bearings, and then I threw open the door of the closet and stumbled out. My parents' bedroom was tiny, shaped a bit like an egg. Everything was painted an unassuming beige color, and the furnishings were sparse. We weren't considered upper class members of the Ark, but we didn't exactly live in squallor, either. My father was a huge asset to the medical team, aiding Abby and Jackson in every way that he could. Though my mother's job was much further down the ranks, the Chambers family was well-respected and liked. Of course, no one knew our little secret...

I stretched and walked into the area that doubled as a living room and in the far corner, Eden's room. The house was empty, as far as I could tell, and the only noise was the humming of the Ark all around me. I sank down onto the couch and and massaged my temples, trying to control my hysteria. My sister would be home from school soon, and I had to beg her to let me trade her spots, even just for a day. I needed the freedom. I needed to see the Ark and not breathe such stagnant air. I needed to not feel trapped, discarded.

Before I knew it, I had drifted off to sleep, the exhaustion and longing weighing too heavily on me. I awoke to the front door sliding open with a hiss, the room no longer tightly airlocked. I groggily swiped my hand over the back of my eyes and glanced over at the door, fully expecting to see my sister. It wasn't my sister.

There was a boy standing in the doorway, his dark hair askew, pushed back by a huge pair of goggles. He had an angular face, fine boned with dark eyes and a full set of lips quirked up in a mischevious grin. His skinny frame was leaning against the open doorway, jittery in a way little kids were if they stayed up too long, and I could tell that he hadn't noticed me yet. I tried to sink down into the couch, wondering why the hell the boy was in my house. He looked proud of himself, wearing that grin, and it took me only half a moment to realize that he had _broken in_, somehow managing to disarm the built-in keypad on our door.

He was still leaning in the open doorway when he cupped his hand around his ear and whispered. "Yeah, Monty. I'm in. I passed the Chambers girl on the way here-she was heading the other direction. We're good to go."

I tried not to curse. I couldn't pretend to be Eden if he had already seen her walking the opposite way. And there was no way I could get up off the couch without drawing attention to myself. I was trapped. I tried to even out my breathing as I watched the boy shut the front door behind him and swagger to my parents room. I could hear him rummaging through drawers, and the finally, he gave a tiny exclamation of: "Yes! Got it, Monty! I knew the doctor's helper would bring some of his goods home. What? Yeah, I'm aware. I'm leaving soon, calm down. Just imagine Nygel's face...we can get so much off of these narcotics, 'cuz I'm pretty sure this is the good stuff..."

The boy trailed out of my parents' room, his thin frame hunched forward slightly. He was struggling to fit some clear vials into the small backpack that was hanging off of his shoulder, one hand fighting with the zipper of the bag, the other trying desperately to hold up his too-loose jeans. The white light above made his features stark, and I had a hard time gauging his age. Fifteen, maybe? He seemed younger than me, but already, he had opted for a life of crime. He planned on stealing drugs from our household, drugs that my father used to treat his patients. All the medical personnel were only allowed small doses at a time, anyway, and now this boy was taking what little my father had been allotted.

I wanted to stop him, but I couldn't move. Unfortunately, it seemed, it would have been better if I had just stayed in the Den, because a second later, the door opened with a familiar _swish_, and my sister walked into the room. Eden was dressed in dark jeans and a black, skin-hugging T-shirt, one of her favorites. Her dark hair was braided, unlike mine, which hung in loose and tangled waves around my shoulders. Her school bag fell to the floor with a thump when she saw the boy standing there, only a few inches away from the couch where I was crouched down. "Jasper?" she asked in disbelief, and it was odd that she knew this boy's name and I didn't. She normally told me everyone's name, that way, if they approached me, I could easily act as Eden. "Jasper Jordan? What in the hell-?"

Jasper was shaking now. He backed into the couch in his haste to move away from Eden, and he rammed into it so hard that I was sent crashing to the ground. My head slammed against the floor, and I blinked hard, trying to clear my vision as I scrambled backwards. Jasper, already startled, whirled around and took in the sight of me lying, disoriented, on the ground. His chest was heaving, and his brown eyes were wide with alarm. He looked from me, to Eden, and then back to me. "You," he choked, edging slowly away from the couch, from me. His back hit the wall. "There are two of you," he said breathlessly into the open air.

His acknowledgement of this sent fear careening through my system. I pulled myself up off of the ground, probably looking wild. And it was true, wasn't it? I was the untamed version of my sister.

Eden looked terrified. Our secret had been blown wide open, and we were all as good as dead. "You can't tell anyone," I rasped. "Please. Please, just think for a second. It's-Jasper, right? I haven't done anything wrong, and they'll lock me up, they'll..." I didn't get to finish, though, because the boy was running now, pushing past my sister to get out the door. He was gone before I could say another word.

"Elodie." I turned to look at Eden. Her eyes were narrowed. She looked tired and scared all at once, and the tilt of her lips was accusatory. "Why weren't you in the Den? Mom and Dad said-"

"I know what they said," I seethed, banging my fist against the couch. That shut her up quickly. "Believe me, Eden, I hang off their every word. But not now. Not now, okay?!" I wound my fingers through my hair and squeezed my eyes shut. "I was tired of sitting in there, surrounded by darkness. Everything hurt, and I was tired. I was tired of hiding, Eden."

My sister stormed toward me, her hands balled into fists. She was pissed. "Just because you were tired doesn't mean you get to ruin everything, Elodie! It's been this way for sixteen years, and then you slip up and in ten seconds, everything goes to hell!" She was an inch away from my face now, and everything shallow in her fell out of sight. She looked like an avenging angel. " God, why were you even born?!"

The words hit me hard, and I took a step back, gritting my teeth. Tears burned in the back of my eyes, but I wouldn't let them fall. I swallowed hard and forced a terrible smile onto my lips. "Nothing can be perfect, Eden. Not even your life, no matter how much you want it to be." Then I shoved past her and went back to the Den, letting the darkness settle on me like a second skin. I was waiting for the inevitable.

But it didn't come until two days later.

XxX

Some part of me had hoped that Jasper would look at our situation and have mercy, especially after he had stolen from us. My parents had agreed to not breathe a word of his theft if he kept his knowledge of my existence secret. But after two days of being on high alert, the pounding on the door finally came. In some ways, it was a relief. It was like someone had taken a weight off of my chest. There would be no more worrying, no more hiding, no more crawling into the Den.

My father opened the door slowly, and then guards were pouring into our home, one after the other. My mother was sitting on the couch crying, her face buried in her hands. I tilted my chin up and met the guard's eyes, silently daring them to be rough with me. Eden was cowering next to me, her arms wrapped around her torso like a security blanket. Some of the guards stared at us in wonder-they had never seen twins before, let alone two that couldn't be told apart. The others eyed us stoicly, their hands resting on the electric rods on their belts.

My mom and dad were placed in metal cuffs and lined up side by side with their faces pressed against the boring beige wall. "Moira and Zander Chambers," intoned one of the guards gravely, "you have broken one of the most important laws of the Ark." Her shaved head and obsidian eyes made her look incredibly unforgiving. "By harboring another child illegally, for stealing more rations for this child, and for deceiving the members of the Ark time and time again, you are hearby sentenced to Float tomorrow morning at dawn. You will say your goodbyes now."

Something broke inside of me, and I lunged forward and grabbed the woman's arm. "Please, you can't do this! We haven't done anything to anyone, please-!" The woman gave me a disgusted look and shook my hand off of her arm.

"Don't test me, girl. I'm not afraid to give you a little jolt." She grabbed the electricity rod at her side, making it crackle dangerously. I flinched, but I did not step back. "

Eden was strangely quiet. I glanced over at her, fully expecting her to scream and start crying, but she continued to look at the ground blankly. She must have been in shock. "I love you, both of you," my father panted as the guards dragged him off of the wall. He looked defeated. "My girls. My miracles." He leaned his forehead against mine for a moment, and for the first time in my life, I saw my father cry. "I didn't make a mistake, keeping you, Elodie. Remember that." His eyes searched mine, and as he leaned in to kiss my cheek, he breathed: "Keep fighting, my special girl."

The guard pulled him away a second later, before I could say a word, and then he was out of sight, being pulled down the hallway. I tried to burn the image of him in my mind as tears leaked down my cheeks. I didn't want to cry, but everything was so terrible. It wasn't fair, to punish our family. But fairness didn't matter to the Council and the Chancellor, did it? It was all about the law.

My mother was next. Her red curls clung to her cheeks with the tears she was shedding. She leaned her head awkwardly against Eden's shoulder, murmuring something indecipherable to her. The cuffs around her hands looked bizarre. My mother was a worker, a survivor, and even if she hadn't shown me much love, she had allowed me to live when my father had begged. That had to mean something. When she pulled away from Eden, bleary-eyed and breathing raggedly, I didn't expect her to even look at me. It was my arrogance, after all, that had sentenced them to float.

But something had broken in my mother, and all the resentment she had felt for me over the years seemed to drain out of her in an instant. "Oh, I am so, so sorry," she whispered to me. She strained against her cuffs briefly and then squeezed her eyes shut. "I would have been better, in another life. I know I would have been." She choked back a sob, biting her lip. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around for the first time in years, and I held her tightly. "Goodbye, Elodie. May we meet again."

It was the first time she had ever said my name, and the realization only made me cry harder. The guards pried me off of my mother a second later and dragged her down the hallway behind my father. I was livid now, full of a pain so burning and intense that I couldn't contain it. One of the more familiar guards, a man known as Guard Commander Shumway, grabbed my hands and cuffed them behind my back before I could resist. "I can see why they kept this one locked up," he grunted to his companions. "She's wild."

The woman with the shaved head cuffed Eden a second later, but my sister barely blinked at the development. She was a dead girl walking.

They had to physically drag me from my house, and I went kicking and screaming all the way, even as one of the electrical rods was jammed against my ribcage. Eden was handled far more gently behind me, but she kept her head low, in either despair or embarrassment, I wasn't sure.

People were staring. Of that, I was very aware. I could feel everyone's stares burning holes into the back of my head, scalding my skin as I snarled and thrashed. It took two more shocks to push me into submission, and even then, I made them drag me like a rag doll for all to see. I was being locked up after years of already living in a cage. There was nothing fair about this, and I wasn't going to pretend that being a prisoner in the Sky Box was better than being a prisoner in my own home.

I caught whispers that floated toward me, broken and indistinct. 'Another illegal child?' and, 'That one looks like the other girl.' and, 'They're identical twins-that hasn't been seen in half a century, has it?' I kept my chin up and stared straight ahead as they pulled me along. The Sky Box awaited.

It wasn't that long of a journey. Over half the Ark was prison cells, no matter what they like to call it. Shumway pushed me down the hallway, past row after row of clear glass cell doors. Some of the delinquents peered out at me curiously. There was one little boy who looked no older than twelve that regarded me with solemn eyes as I passed. Shumway finally stopped in front of an empty cell and punched something into the keypad. The door immediately opened with a hiss, and before he could shove me inside and slam the door shut without a word, I craned my head around to try to see Eden. But she was already gone.

I let Shumway push me into the cell.

In the corner was a tiny cot covered with a sparse blanket, and a toilet was wedged beside it, trying its best to look inconspicuous. The walls and floor were a dull gray, the material looking strangely similiar to concrete. I let myself sink to my knees in the middle of the room, staring at the naked fluorescent lights above me, imagining that there was sunlight warming my skin.

I didn't want to sleep. In the morning, my parents would be Floated, and it would be my fault. In the morning, I wouldn't wake curled up in the Den, but in this unfamiliar place that wasn't made for me. In the morning, people would remember that Eden Chambers had a sister, an identical twin sister, at that, and they would whisper about me, saying my name like it was a dangerous word on their lips: _Elodie Chambers._

In the morning, my mistake would come into the light fully, and I didn't know if I could take it.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and cradled my head on my legs, closing my eyes tiredly. _Keep fighting, my special girl._

That was one thing I could do.

XxX

~_11 months later_~

I was asleep when they tried to kill me.

At least, I thought someone was _trying_ to kill me. I had been cocooned in my blanket, completely unaware that anyone but me was in my cell until I felt a warm hand jerk my arm up.

I was immediately in motion, swinging up my other arm to defend myself, but my blow was completely intercepted by Nell. She was the same guard that had taken my parents away to be Floated nearly a year before, and she looked almost the same, except her shaved hair had been allowed to grow out into a mass of corkscrew curls. She was beautiful in a fierce, scary sort of way, like one of the poisonous flowers we had read about in our textbooks in school. Her brown skin had golden undertones, and she was taller than most men aboard the Ark, built of solid, graceful muscle. Her obsidian eyes regarded me with distaste.

Nell took her job very seriously, and I was normally her least favorite prisoner to deal with. Mostly, I think, because cooperation wasn't in my programming, and she lived for order. I didn't really blame her for using more force on me, because she was never cruel about it. Not like Thatcher. Nell was just cold, and cold I could deal with.

"You could have given me some warning," I grumbled, relaxing easily. "What, is it shower time? I'll just wait until tomorrow, I think..." I tried to lay back down, but Nell wasn't having any of it. She pulled my arm, hard, and I was forced to climb to my feet. Normally I was quiet with the guards, but something about Nell's always-silent demeanor inspired conversation.

"Face the wall, Prisoner 297."

I blinked. It took me a moment to realize that Nell wasn't the only one in the room. Two guards flanked the doorway, their uniforms pressed and clean. They didn't look like they belonged in this part of the Sky Box.

My eyebrows furrowed. "What's going on?"

Nell didn't answer my question. She simply held out a metal object in the palm of her hand. "Hold out your arm, girl. Make this easy on the both of us." Nell's voice was soft, and the deafening silence that followed nearly killed me. I took a step back.

"I don't-I don't turn eighteen until November. You can't Float me yet." I looked toward the guards, my stomach leaden with dread. "You can't Float me yet, I have a chance for review!" My spine was pressed up against the wall behind me now, and I was aware of the hysteria in my voice. This was illegal, surely.

Nell gave me an exasperated look that would have eased my nerves any other day. "Hold out your right arm, 297. For once, just do as you're asked."

I hesitated. Maybe I was condemning myself to a terrible fate, but I didn't really have much of a choice. I held out my arm reluctantly and Nell snapped the object onto my wrist, making me flinch slightly as the metal bracelet dug into my skin. Nell nodded to the two other guards by the door, and they approached me carefully, like I was a rabid animal. I was notorious for causing trouble when there was more than one guard involved, and it seemed like these two had gotten the memo. I glanced over my shoulder at Nell, who had her hands on her hips and was watching me with her hawk eyes, and then I took in all the papers taped to my walls, filled with obscure poetry that I had memorized, and some that I had written myself.

I offered both guards one of my arms, as though they were escorting me to a ball instead of my impending doom. They both eyed me warily, each linking one of their arms through my own. And then I was being led out of my cell into complete chaos.

There were tons of other delinquents around me, each being led by a guard, all being shuffled toward the lower levels of the Sky Box. I instantly began to panic. This was a mass culling, by the looks of it. It wasn't until a blonde girl wrecked into me from behind, nearly knocking me to the ground, that I really began to be afraid. The struggle freed me for half a second, long enough to realize that the frantic girl was Clarke Griffin, Abby's daughter. Her blue eyes were wild. I had no idea why she was among us, of all people. She was wrestled back by guards a moment after Nell caught my arm, steadying me, and I watched as Dr. Abigail Griffin herself pushed through the crowd of teenagers and guards, commanding her daughter to stop and listen.

"Clarke, you're not being executed," I heard Abby murmur, and relief pulled in my chest until she finished. "You're being sent to the ground, all 100 of you."

My eyes widened, and I felt Nell jam the electrical stick she carried against my spine. "Keep walking, 297," she muttered.

I tried to twist around. The sea of jostling teenagers was distracting, but my chest now felt hollow. I needed answers. "She's being serious, isn't she? You're not Floating us-you're sending us to Earth."

The disbelief in my voice was palpable.

Suddenly, I would rather be Floated. At least that was basically painless. Going to Earth, which had toxic air and toxic land-that was a worse death. A punishment made for real criminals.

"So they are trying to kill us," I whispered, standing my ground.

Nell prodded me in the back a little more forcefully this time, but I didn't budge. "Chambers," Nell warned, and I knew she was being completely serious now because my last name was involved. When it became clear to her that I wasn't going to move, Nell turned up the electricity as high as the law allowed and shoved the rod against my spine.

My nerves ignited, and every cell in my body screamed in protest. I fell to the ground, convulsing, and the prisoners that had been unlucky enough to be standing close to me scurried back in horror. My vision was tunneling when Nell scooped me up into her arms like I weighed nothing more than a small child, and the crowd parted around her when they saw what was happening. I blinked and blinked, each second dragging on torturously. I watched as one of the guards shot Clarke with a tranquilizer dart, and she fell to the ground limply a second later.

She didn't have the pleasure of watching the guards round us up like cattle and take us down to what they were referring to as the Dropship. I was still disoriented when Nell strapped me in, but I managed to get out two words, slurred though they were: "My sister...?"

Nell sighed, a deep, exhausted sigh that sounded like it physically pained her. Her grip on my shoulder was tight, and she met my eyes steadily. "Eden is aboard too. You all are getting a second chance."

I let my head loll to the side and tried to nod, but my mind was still fuzzy and everything was buzzing annoyingly. Time seemed to ebb and stretch as I watched the others around me be strapped into their harnesses. Most of them looked terrified. Some looked entralled. I felt sick, especially after the Dropship disengaged from the Ark and started to gather speed. Not long afterward, we hit Earth's atmosphere.

Everyone was jolted around, and I swallowed hard to try to keep the bile in the back of my throat.

A second later, a T.V. in the middle of the Dropship clicked on, revealing the face grave face of our Chancellor, Thelonious Jaha. I wanted to spit at just the sight of him. "Prisoners of The Ark," Jaha intoned, and everyone fell into a hushed silence. "You've been given a second chance, and as your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself."

"What a load of bullshit," huffed someone next to me. I looked over to my left to see a tiny girl with a nearly white mane of hair glare up at the television screen. I silently agreed with her.

"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there," Jaha continued. "If the odds of survival were better, we would have sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."

I gave a bitter laugh just as a boy a few feet away from me shouted: "Your dad is a dick, Wells!"

Sure enough, when I looked over to my far right, Wells Jaha was strapped down next to Clarke, his mouth set in a firm line. I blinked and blinked again. If Clarke being accused of something criminal was odd, the Chancellor's son being charged with a crime seemed insane. What kind of parent sent their own kid to die?

"Those crimes will be forgiven," Jaha promised. "Those records wiped clean."

"Oh, fuck you!" The little pixie girl beside me spat, practically wriggling in fury. "They've been cleared because we'll be dead soon!"

Jaha stared ahead and droned on. "The drop site has been chosen carefully. Before the last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough non-perishable food to sustain up to 300 people for up to two years."

That peaked my interest. So if we didn't die of radiation poisoning, at least we knew we woouldn't starve to death.

My thoughts were interrupted when a body floated past me, propelling itself toward Clarke and Wells. It was an unfamiliar boy, close to my age, by the looks of it, with a mop of brown hair tucked into a beanie. He twisted in midair and several of the others hooted, obviously intrigued with his bravery. Or his stupidity.

"Spacewalk bandit strikes again!" someone yelled, and another kid laughed. "Go, Finn! Check it out."

I rolled my eyes. The idiot obviously was craving attention, otherwise he wouldn't have been stupid enough to take off his harness. The spacewalker, Finn, twisted in midair again and offered Clarke and Wells a smile. "Your dad Floated me, after all," Finn said to Wells, raising his eyebrows slightly.

Two more boys, Glen Dickson and Jericho Summers, who I recognized from school, followed Spacewalker Finn in his quest of idiocy and took off their harnesses as well. They did flips and cartwheels through the air, crooning for others to come and join them.

"You should strap in before the parachutes deploy," Wells suggested to Finn dryly.

The girl next to me mumbled curse after curse in a low, steady stream. I was surprised she hadn't run out of breath yet.

Clarke strained against her harness and narrowed her eyes at Glen and Jericho, who were now pretending to shoot each other. "Hey, you two, go back to your seats if you want to live."

The boys paid her no heed. I adjusted myself so my harness wasn't digging into my ribcage.

"Mount Weather is life," Jaha said, nearly wrapping up his speech. "You must locate those supplies immediately."

Finn, who had been hovering thoughtfully in front of Clarke and Wells, narrowed his eyes at the Griffin girl and stared at her appraisingly. "Hey, you're the traitor who's been in solitary for a year."

Clarke's mouth twisted in distaste, and I fought the urge to snort. The girl beside me didn't. "And you're the idiot who wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal space walk."

The pixie girl gave a tinkling laugh, something that didn't quite fit the language that had been coming out of her mouth a minute earlier. "Hey assholes,"she called, and everyone looked over in our direction briefly. "Take a seat, why don't ya? You can compare dick sizes when we land, m'kay?"

Several people laughed, and Jericho scowled and flipped Pixie Girl off.

It was only by sheer luck that I heard a panicked voice over the din. "My-something is wrong with my harness!" The words were shrill, and the voice was very familiar. My stomach sank to somewhere in my toes. It wasn't long before I saw her. Eden was floating, too, a desperate look in her eyes. She was thinner than I remembered her, all angles and skin and bones. A year hadd chamged the both of us. Her dark hair fanned out around her head as she moved. "I need an empty seat. My harness is broken. Is there an empty seat somewhere?"

My sister drifted closer, and it wasn't long before people began to examine her...and then look to me. We were infamous, after all. I had almost forgotten. Eden continued to look around for a free seat, but all of them seemed to be taken. Dread coursed through me as she pushed past Jericho and Glen, searching fruitlessly.

"Your one responsibility is to stay alive," Jaha finished, and then the T.V. screen went black. The Dropship was going faster, and at any moment, the parachutes would release.

"Stay in your seats!" Clarke called, gripping her harness to her tightly. My heart was pounding in my throat as I watched Eden struggle to get back to her damaged seat.

Without warning, the parachutes deployed, and Glen and Jericho, along with my sister, were sent flying toward the ceiling of the Dropship. "Eden!" I screamed, but the sound was forcibly ripped from my lungs when the Dropship gathered speed. Wells was shouting something to Clarke a few feet away, and the girl next to me was either whispering some sort of prayer or another elaborate curse, and I could barely breathe. The lights started to flicker, and then people were shouting all at once, panicked, as the Dropship collided with the ground a break-neck speed.

**Hi guys! Yet another installment! Thank you all for the follows, the favorites, and the reviews. I'm always so thankful for the support and enthusiasm, and seeing that you already like Elodie is pretty fantastic. On a side note, I feel a little bad because I should be updating Severed Shadows before this, but inspiration for this fic hit today, so here we are. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please feel free to leave a review of what you like/dislike about the story so far. Thanks so much!**

**~Harley **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2: Impact**

For one terrifying moment, I had expected death. The dropship had been squealing in protest, its lights flickering dangerously, and then on impact...everything stopped.

There was no hum of machinery, no speaking-everyone's shrieks of alarm had been ripped from their lungs a second before. Without the sound of the dropship's engine, our surroundings became eerily quiet. I barely had time to process what was happening before people started murmuring again, undoing their harnesses and climbing out of their seats on eager, wobbly legs. I simply sat where I was, my mind playing the last few moments in an uncomprehending loop-kids out of their seats, the severe turblence, Eden's faulty harness..._Eden_. My heart was galloping in my chest as I tried to undo my harness as quickly as I could. I was on my feet a second later, pushing other kids out of the way, panic lodged in my throat. My sister had been thrown against the wall with lethal force. I needed to find her, I needed to make sure she was okay...

Someone behind me marveled at the lack of machine hum, but I had no time to turn around and agree with them. I kept pushing through the crowd. Clarke was on my heels, her blonde hair slighty disheveled as she craned her neck to try to see how much damage had ensued. People kept knocking into me, elbows digging into my ribs, but I didn't care. I was staring at the boy at my feet, lying limp on the floor. My lips parted, but no sound came out of my mouth. Clarke placed her hand in the crook of my elbow for a second and then kneeled down in front of me, flipping Jericho over. His eyes were wide and unblinking. She knawed on her bottom lip and then looked over to Finn, who was knelt down by Glen's head. Glen had somehow ripped some wiring and tubes out of the wall on impact, and he was still tangled in the mess.

Clarke's blue eyes were hopeful when she called: "Finn, is he breathing?"

Finn hestitated for a second and then pressed his fingers against Glen's throat. His expression was grave when he shook his head.

And then I was in motion again, the panic I was feeling making me tremble violently. I needed to find Eden, because, oh god, those boys were dead and she had been out of her seat too...

She was only a few feet away from Glen. Crumpled in on herself, she looked broken and child-like, and her dark hair was covering the majority of her face. She wasn't moving. I flung myself down next to her, all of the blood rushing out of my face. I felt incredibly sick. "_Please_," I choked, and I wasn't really sure who I was begging to, but I just knew that I was begging. I needed Eden to be alive. I didn't know what I would do if she wasn't.

Slowly, I pulled her hand into my lap and rested my fingers against her wrist, holding my breath. And when, a heartbeat later, I felt Eden's faint pulse, I nearly burst into tears. I wrapped my arms around her and cradled her head to my chest, aware that there were others around us moving, watching, whispering. I didn't care. I pushed her hair out of her face and was startled to see how pale she was. A slight trickle of blood was coming out of her nose, but I hastily wiped it away, trying to catalogue the damage done. There was a huge scrape across her cheekbone, and her left arm was already starting to bruise, probably where she had tried to brace her fall, but other than that, I didn't see anything catastrophically wrong.

I was about to wrap my arms under Eden's armpits and try to haul her unconscious body to her feet when a hand fell on my shoulder. Startled, I jerked and nearly dropped my sister completely. The hand that had been on my shoulder reached down to catch Eden. I looked up. The hand was attached to a boy with worried eyebrows and incredibly green eyes. His blonde hair was tousled, and he sucked his bottom lip into his mouth and gave me an unsure smile. He looked strangely familiar, but the fog in my mind wouldn't clear enough for me to place his face. "Need some help?" he asked me quietly, and when I gave a solemn, wooden nod, the boy pulled Eden into his arms, supporting her head against his chest.

I opened my mouth, maybe to thank him, maybe to let out the sob I had been holding back, but then I was distracted by a guy to my left calling: "The outer door is on the lower level. Let's go." Everyone seemed to have a purpose, then, and they all vaulted for the hatch in the floor that would lead them down to the lower level. I was a bit slower, looking from the boy helping me over to the hatch in doubt.

"My sister...how are we going to get her down there?" The boy bit his lip, considering.

"I can lend a hand to ya, if you need it," said a voice from my right, and when I turned, I was greeted by a tiny smirk. Pixie Girl, the same girl I had been sitting beside on impact, raised her eyebrows and nodded to Eden. "Me and you, Twinsie, will hold onto your sister until Macho here gets down to the bottom. And then we'll lower her down into his waiting arms."

I swallowed hard. "Okay. Alright. But why exactly are you...?"

The girl patted my shoulder like I was a child who had just asked a very amusing question. "We're on Earth now. We may all be dead in the next few minutes because of poison air or some shit. So kindness is key." She grinned widely, making her cheeks dimple. "And," she conceded, "if my cousin thinks you're worth helping, you must be worth helping. Drew doesn't like interacting with people all that much, normally."

My mind was whirling. _Drew_? Suddenly, a memory flashed. There was a boy spinning me around the dance floor at the Unity Day Ball, his green eyes piercing even behind his mask. _Drew._ I had met him nearly a year ago, when things had been so much more simple. And now, here he was again, helping me. I looked over at Pixie Girl and croaked: "Cousin?", because that statement was odd in itself.

Drew edged toward the hatch, frowning, and muttered, "Second cousin..Didn't really end well for them, either. Her grandmother is my great-aunt. And she won't let me forget it, unfortunately."

The girl gave a dramatic sigh and wrinkled her nose. "Well, you're in a shitty mood. Lighten up, Drew. Earth! If it doesn't kill us, it'll be amazing." She grinned. "We're fucking free, cousin."

Drew shook his head again and passed Eden to Pixie Girl and I, slowly climbing down the ladder with a look of sheer concentration on his face. The girl tugged one of Eden's arms around her neck, trying to keep her head from lolling. "This is really weird, by the way, Twinsie. I look at this one, and I look at you, and it's like deja vu to the extreme." Pixie Girl pushed her tangled blonde waves behind her shoulder. Her eyes were the same startling green as her cousin's. "My name is Liselotte, if you were wondering," she added. "Liselotte Wulff. But my friend calls me Lottie."

My eyebrows furrowed, and I clutched Eden closer to me. Drew was almost to the bottom now. "Friends, you mean?" I asked, trying to sound interested. I was much too worried about my sister to pay close attention.

Lottie snorted. "No, Twinsie, I mean friend. Her name is Raven, but she's still on the Ark. That girl is too sly to get caught."

"Alright, lower her down!" Drew called up to us, effectively ending the conversation. His arms were wide open. Both Lottie and I struggled for a second, but then Drew had his hands on Eden's waist, his grip tight. He pulled her into his arms a second later, bridal-style, and I released a breath that I didn't know I had been holding. I climbed down the rungs after Lottie, immediately overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies around me. People were shuffling, murmuring excitedly. Clarke, who was pushing people out of the way to get to the front, said: "No, we can't just open the doors."

Someone laughed behind me, and another person to my left threw some sort of insult that I didn't quite catch.

The boy at the very front of the group, or more like man, put his arms out and raised his eyebrows. He was wearing a guard's uniform and a serious expression, his dark hair slicked back from his forehead. "Hey," he intoned, "just back it up, guys."

He was reaching for the door handle when Clarke shoved forward again, making herself completely known. Everyone was watching her now. "Stop! The air could be toxic."

The older boy let his lip curl slightly and shrugged. "If the air is toxic, then we're all dead anyway," he pointed out. Dread filled me again when I realized just how right he was. It might not have mattered that we landed without dying on impact. The Earth's air might kill us immediately.

Lottie was squinting at the boy, and I couldn't tell if she was impressed by him or mildly disgusted. Drew kept his expression neutral, his eyes locked straight ahead. I was thankful that he was carrying Eden as gently as he could.

The murmurings all ceased a second later when a voice broke over the din, hopeful and desperate all at once. "Bellamy?"

I turned to look for the source and saw a brunette hanging from one of the ladders in the far corner. She dropped to the ground a second later, without hesitation, and began to weave her way through the crowd, long hair flying up behind her as she launched herself at Bellamy. Bellamy caught her in his arms, grinning slightly and drinking in her appearance. "My God, look how big you are."

I knew, then, who they were. Bellamy Blake and his sister, Octavia. The girl that was like me. Octavia wrinkled her nose and pulled on the lapels of her brother's jacket. "What the hell are you wearing, a guard's uniform?" she demanded.

Bellamy looked down at his outfit and pursed his lips for half a second. "I borrowed it to get on the dropship. Someone has got to keep an eye on you," he laughed, and I saw all the affection he had for his sister swimming in his eyes. I envied the Blakes in that moment, because even though they had a rough life as well, Bellamy didn't seem to resent Octavia. Unlike Eden, who had been fed resentment for me from an early age.

Drew shifted a bit to the side, and Lottie reached up on her tiptoes and flicked his ear. The boy sighed loudly and shot her a warning look, but I felt like I was watching more friendly banter than an actual exasperating event. My attention was grabbed a second later by Clarke, who now was staring in confusion at Bellamy's bare wrist. "Where's your wristband?" she breathed, taking a step closer.

Octavia immediately bristled. "Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year." She narrowed her blue eyes at Clarke pointedly.

"No one has a brother," Carter Cavender muttered, running his hands over his shaved head. He looked completely confused.

An unfamiliar girl to my left shook her head violently and exclaimed: "That's Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden in the floor!"

Something in me ignited. Octavia and I were essentially one in the same, the hidden children, the freaks. People were gawking and whispering, making her out to be a huge spectacle, so it didn't surprise me when she lunged forward, a look of pure fury on her face. Bellamy caught her around the waist and held her as she struggled, gritting his teeth. "Octavia, Octavia, no!"

Before I really knew what I was doing, I stepped in front of the Blake girl, glaring at those around me. Both Drew and Lottie watched me in surprise. I looked at my sister, still unconscious, to the multitudes of people around me. I heard it already, the whispers that settled on my skin, making me itch. _That's Elodie Chambers... She's like the Blake girl. They hid her for years. Her parents lied to the Council, said she was Floated, a stillborn...She's got an identical twin, they were both locked up. She's the one the guards always talked about in the Sky Box. Out of control._

I stared at all of them levelly. "Go ahead. Say something else. Keep talking." My hands curled into fists. "We're not animals. This isn't one of the zoos you read about in textbooks. We deserve to be here just as much as any of you," I told them. Then I looked over my shoulder at Octavia. She and Bellamy both were staring at me. Octavia's chest was heaving. "Let's give them something else to remember you by, okay?" I said, offering her a smile.

She seemed taken aback. "Yeah? Like what?"

Bellamy dropped his arms and let Octavia go. "Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years," he suggested, a smile twisting his lips. He pushed a button, and the door to the dropship opened slowly.

I inhaled sharply, watching as Octavia stepped forward. I could see it, from here. The grass, green and as vibrant as it had been described, only a few feet away. Octavia took a few steps forward, mesmerized, but then she looked back at me and held out her hand. I stepped forward to meet her, briefly touched by her decision to let me share her achievement. "Together," she said to me softly, and I nodded. We took another step, and now the sunlight was streaming down through the trees, warming every inch of me. The air on my face wasn't recycled, it wasn't scarce-it was crisp and cool and inviting on my skin. I inhaled deeply again and took another step forward, Octavia's soft hand in my own.

When we finally came to the end of the door, Octavia looked over at me, eyes full of wonder and excitement, and the feelings were mutual. I wondered if I looked as giddy as I felt. We each stepped off of the dropship simultaneously, clinging onto each other as grass, actual grass, squished under our combat boots. And then Octavia was grinning, throwing her head back and flinging our conjoined hands into the air. "We're back, bitches!" she crooned, and I shrieked my approval. Everyone started swarming out the door, then, whooping and laughing and spinning each other around when their feet touched the ground for the first time.

Octavia smiled at me and leaned in to whisper, "Thanks," before taking off, no doubt to share her excitement with Bellamy. I stood there, alone in the middle of the grass, grinning like an idiot. Lottie cartwheeled past me, landing on her ass and giggling like crazy. Drew crouched, stripping off his aviator jacket so he could lay Eden down and prop her head up. I grabbed his arms and locked eyes with him. "Thank you for helping us."

His smile was sincere, if not a little embarrassed. "I saw you, before the dropship crashed. And then, afterward, I knew your sister needed help." He leaned back against the nearest tree, pulling away from me. The tree was much taller than I had anticipated. "You're the one I danced with, aren't you?"  
I nodded, picking up a blade of grass and holding it up to the light. I couldn't meet Drew's eyes. "My name is Elodie," I told him softly, and it seemed like such an odd, intimate thing, my name. I had never told anyone what it was before. "I almost told you when we were dancing, but I had to stop myself."

Drew let out a sigh. "I thought it was you. I mean, I walked up to Eden one day not long after and...she was confused. She said she didn't remember me at all." I let the piece of grass drop and chanced a look in Drew's direction. He was still very close to Eden, protecting her, but his eyes were on me. I swallowed. "When they took both of you to the Sky Box, I knew I had the wrong sister." His smile made his lips quirk to the side, and it was a sincere, devastating thing. My cheeks were starting to heat up.

"What would you have done if you had the right one?" I asked him quietly, trying to not let my voice shake. I had hardened myself in my year of imprisonment. I didn't need some boy to come in and ruin everything.

Drew looked up at the incredibly blue sky, and the sunlight made his eyelashes purely golden against his cheekbones. When he looked back at me, it was hard to focus on anything else. "I would have asked her for another dance sometime soon."

I smiled and cast my eyes down, letting my hands seek my sister's. Eden's palms were clammy, but she was still breathing. Yet the state of her unconsciousness was beginning to worry me. Shouldn't she have woken up by now? How did these things work, exactly? My father may have been a medical assistant, but I had never taken much interest in his profession. There was one person, on the other hand, that I knew was knowledgeable when it came to illness and injury.

I looked up and squinted, my eyes roaming. There were people still spinning around in circles, and many of them had just taken to lying in the grass on their backs. Clarke, however, was on her feet when I spotted her. She had a map in her hands, and the entralled smile that had been on her lips quickly faded as she looked at the map again.

Pushing myself to my feet, I offered Drew a small smile and asked: "Could you watch Eden for a few minutes? I need to talk to Clarke."

He nodded and then dodged to the side to avoid getting kicked in the head by Lottie, who was cackling as she did another cartwheel. Clarke glanced at her map again and then looked off in the distance, brows furrowed. Spacewalker Finn was lurking behind her, an infuriating smile on his lips. Somewhere along the way he had lost his ratty beany, and now his mop of brown hair hung loose around his face. His posture suggested he was trying to flirt, but honestly, I didn't have time to let him finish. And besides, Clarke didn't look all that impressed anyway.

"Hey, Clarke?" She looked over her shoulder at me, her blue eyes still narrowed in concentration. "Sorry, but I have a question." I shifted on my feet, rocking back on my heels. My jacket was suddenly too hot on my skin, and I fought the urge to peel it off. "My name's Elodie, and my sister-" I pointed over to Eden, "she's unconscious. When we landed, she was unbuckled because there was something wrong with her harness, and I think she hit her head."

Finn just stared at me, lips pursed. Clarke, on the other hand, seemed to focus in on what I was saying. "Okay, if she's been unconscious since we landed, there's a possibility that she suffered a pretty bad concussion." I nodded, hanging onto her every word. "Or..."

"Or what?" I asked sharply. My tone seemed to startle Clarke, but she didn't drop my gaze.

"Or she might be in a coma, Elodie. When there's a certain amount of trauma to the brain, it has to try to find a way to heal itself. Going into a coma can sometimes speed up that process, if it's for an hour or two." Clarke lowered the map and sighed. "But if it persists...Elodie might not wake up at all."

I swallowed, and then swallowed again. Looking over at my sister's limp form, I wondered if I could handle being without her. For years, I had pretended to _be_ Eden. I knew her through and through, and even though we had been seperated for the past year, I doubted she had changed all that much. Maybe she still resented me like she always had, but she was still my sister, my twin. There would be time for us to fix things, down here on Earth. There would be time for us to find out who we really wanted to be. But only if Eden woke up.

I wrung my hands. "What can I do?" I asked Clarke quietly. I wondered if she could detect the desperation in my voice.

Clarke pinched the bridge of her nose and then looked back over to the mountains in the distance. "The only thing I can say is give it time. Keep her comfortable and safe, and then we can go from there."

Finn finally perked up after a silence settled between us all. "Why were you so serious before, Princess?" Finn prodded, leaning toward Clarke. "It's no like we died in a fiery explosion." His tone was meant to be light, but I gritted my teeth. I wasn't exactly in a joking mood.

Clarke sent him a glare, and I couldn't help but approve. "Try telling that to those two guys who tried to follow you out of their seats." She met my eyes. "And Elodie's sister, who's obviously hurt."

Finn winced for half a moment and shot me an apologetic look, but the expression didn't last long. He was quickly grinning again. "You don't like being called Princess, do you, Princess?" he observed.

I rolled my eyes and was about to walk away when Clarke latched onto my arm and Finn's arm, her gaze focused on the distance again. "Do you see that peak over there?" she questioned.

Finn squinted, but there wasn't any doubt in my mind what peak she was talking about. It was by far the biggest one around, covered in green, green, green. I fought the urge to smile at the sight. It was just so beautiful. I could never get enough of the color. There was so much vibrance here.

"Mount Weather," Clarke continued, and I stiffened immediately. Did that mean... "There's a radiation-soaked forest between us and our next meal." All of the air whooshed out of my lungs at once, and Clarke let mine and Finn's arms drop. "They dropped us on the wrong damn mountain."

My ears started to ring. There was no way. Their calculations couldn't have been_ that _wrong, could they? "We'll figure something out," I said quietly, offering Clarke a comforting pat on the shoulder. I was beginning to realize that all of this was very, very real. This wasn't a place to do cartwheels and lay on the grass. We didn't have food, we weren't sure where the nearest water supply was, and my sister was still injured. Things were serious now, and if I wanted to survive, the best way to go about that was to befriend the girl with medical knowledge. And maybe, I thought, glancing to Drew and Lottie, to gain some other allies along the way.

"I'm going to go check on my sister," I told Clarke. She gave me a distracted nod and glanced back down at her map as I walked back in Eden's direction. She was still sprawled out on the ground where I had left her, and Drew was watching over her with a pensive look on his face. He had a flower in his hands, and he was picking off each deep violet petal as I approached him. He glanced up when I plopped down beside him, my brow furrowing as I took in Eden's motionless form. "Anything?" I prompted, trying not to hope too much.

Drew sighed and shook his head. There was a piece of grass in his fair hair, but I refrained from reaching out and grabbing it. "She hasn't moved. What did Clarke Griffin have to say?" He leaned back on his elbows and squinted a bit in the bright sunlight flittering through the tree's leaves.

I bit my lip and looked over at Lottie, who was fast at work carving something into the tree we were sitting in the shade of. She seemed so caught up that I doubted she heard anything we were saying. "She said it could be a really bad concussion. Or maybe a coma, depending on how long she's out and how badly her brain was hurt." I tried to swallow down the bitterness in my voice. Afer all, it was my fault Eden had been taken in the first place. I should have just stayed in the Den...

Drew placed a hand on my knee, drawing me out of my thoughts. I fought back the blush trying to gather in my cheeks as I observed our close proximity. "Blaming yourself won't make Eden better, Elodie," he murmured, and when I jerked in surprise, he gave one of the embarrassed half-smiles that I was beginning to associate with him. "I-I've always been good at reading people. My mother used to tell me that it was a gift."

I offered Drew a tiny smile back. Suddenly, Lottie launched herself in my direction, her grin blindingly white. "It's alright, Twinsie. I'm sure you're sister will wake up soon. But until then, come look at this!" She grabbed my hand and practically dragged me to my feet, tugging me over to the section of the tree that she had been carving up with a rock. When I saw what she had carved, I couldn't help it-I laughed. Octavia's proclamation of '_We're back, bitches!' _was carved into the wood in all caps, along with the current date. Lottie was smiling proudly at her work. I reached out and traced the letters carefully.

My admiration was cut short when I heard raised voices from a few feet away. "They got a bar in this town? I'll buy you a drink."

That voice, among the others. I turned around slowly, every inch of me hyperaware. And there he was, just as I had dreaded. He looked mostly the same-the past year had made his cheekbones sharper, but he was still lanky, still had that shaggy brown hair pushed back by a pair of huge goggles, and his dark eyes still were mischevious. He was smiling down at Clarke in that moment, tugging on his thin gray jacket. It looked like he was wearing the same jeans as he had been a year ago, except for now they fit, no longer hanging off of him. Jasper Jordan. The boy who had sold out my family after robbing us. The boy that had my parents killed.

I had't been expecting to see him here, of all places. I hadn't even caught a glimpse of him on the dropship when we were on the way to the ground. It shouldn't have surprised me that a thief would be among a group of teenage criminals, but it did. Because I wasn't ready to face Jasper after he had ripped my family apart, sentencing my parents to Float and my sister and I to be imprisoned.

I felt my hands curling into lethal fists. Drew was right. I couldn't blame myself for what had happened to Eden, not really. Not when all the real blame rested on the shoulders of the boy who was now trying to desperately flirt with Clarke.

The anger I felt was palpable, because a second later, Lottie had her hand on my shoulder. "What is it, Elodie?" she asked, and it startled me. It was the first time she had said my name.

I couldn't answer, didn't dare to. How could I explain that I had begged Jasper for mercy, and he had still ran from our house and alerted the authorities of my existence? How could I explain that he had ruined my life? I quickly decided that I couldn't. There was no way bouncy, spit-fire Lottie would understand that I wanted nothing more in this moment than to kill Jasper Jordan with my bare hands. _And I just might_, I thought darkly, watching as Wells Jaha pushed Jasper away from Clarke, his shoulders squared.

Jasper gave an indignant squawk and was quickly aided by a shorter boy with a hooked nose, his blue-gray eyes flashing dangerously. He said something about Jasper being with then, and I let my top lip curl back from my teeth in disgust. The killer was being protected. Fantastic.

Lottie whistled as Wells and the shorter boy went chest to chest, but the situation was quickly diffused by Bellamy Blake. He stepped between the two, eying them with distaste. He still looked immaculate-dark hair slicked back and pressed guard uniform on his shoulders, but the scowl on his face made him something to be reckoned with. Octavia stood at his side, watching the event with interest. "We're on the ground," Bellamy said loudly. "That not good enough for you?"

I'd had enough of this. My anger propelled me forward, and Lottie didn't try to follow. I had been minding my own business, but Bellamy acting like the alpha male wasn't going to slide. He may have been older than all of us, but I'd be damned if he thought he was in charge. I shoved past a group of younger girls, maybe fifteen, and then planted myself right beside Clarke just as Wells said: "We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority."

Clarke glanced over at me in confusion, but I held my ground. I tried not to look over at Jasper, who was only standing about a yard away. Bellamy sneered at Wells, his eyes practically narrowing to slits. This close, I could see the outline of freckles across the bridge of his nose. "Screw your father." Bellamy took a dangerous step closer. "What, you think you're in charge here, you and your little Princess?"

Before Wells could say anything else, I moved to stand in front of Clarke and Wells. "Do you think _you're_ in charge?" I countered, crossing my arms over my chest. "None of us agreed to that. It's not a position to _take._" I glared. "It's something that's earned." Octavia glanced from me to Bellamy, her mouth hanging open. I had defended her on the dropship, but even if we had similiar situations, I wasn't going to follow her brother blindly. Bellamy couldn't just bully other people into submission.

Clarke finally spoke, and she sounded really angry, right then. "Do you think we _care_ who's in charge?" Her blue eyes were electric. "We need to get to Mount Weather not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this'll be." Clarke's raised voice had caught almost everyone's attention now. The landing site was almost silent, save the rustle of leaves in the breeze. "How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a twenty mile trekk, okay?" Clarke's face clouded over. Her eyes raked over the crowd. "So if we want to get there before dark, we need to leave now."

Bellamy shook his head. "I got a better idea." He gestured to both Clarke and Wells. "You two go, find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change."

Several of the delinquents around me murmured their agreement, and I was furious once again. I disliked Wells. He was the son of the Chancellor, the man who enforced the terrible Floating laws in the first place. Fairness didn't seem to be in Jaha's blood, so I didn't like his son by association. But Clarke- Abby Griffin's daughter, who was intelligent and wanted to protect others-she didn't deserve to be treated like this. She may have been privileged at some point in her life, but we were all equals here, and Clarke wasn't using her privilege to try to command everyone. If anything, Bellamy was trying to use his lack of privilege to gain the upper hand, and I didn't appreciate it.

"Do you think it really matters now, what we were up there?" I jerked my hand up to the sky, and I was aware that everyone was watching me again. Hushed voices prodded at me, but I ignored them. "Down here, it's different. There is no privileged and there is no poor. We're all the same, and if we want to survive-" I shot Bellamy a pointed glare-"we need to understand that. Otherwise, we'll start dividing. And then we'll all end up dead." The word 'dead' rang hauntingly through the open air, and I could feel Clarke and Wells' surprised gazes on my back. I wasn't afraid of Bellamy, or of these other kids. If someone didn't tell them how it was now, they wouldn't believe the truth of my words later.

"Whatever," Bellamy dismissed. "Chambers, you can say whatever you want. But the past doesn't get erased just because you want us all to join hands and be equals." He looked around for support. "Am I right?"

There were several yells of agreement, but I stood my ground. Octavia was staring at me like she was disappointed, but I let it slide off. I knew I was right, despite what everyone else believed.

"You're not listening," Wells said, coming to my defense. I wanted to push the kid away from me, but I gritted my teeth instead. "Elodie is right. We all need to do this together. We all need to go."

The kid with the hooked nose, instigator that he was, shoved Wells backwards and smirked, jostling me as he did so. "Look at this, everybody...The Chancellor of Earth." His smile was the most predatory thing I had ever seen. I didn't try to go to Wells' defense, but Clarke did, and she was immediately intercepted by John Mbege, one of the hooked-nose kid's many lackeys. I watched silently as Wells stepped to the hooked-nose kid.

"Think that's funny?" he growled, trying to throw a swing. I stepped back and huffed in disgust.

"Wells," Clarke plead, but Jaha's son seemed to have gone deaf.

Mbege was grinning ferally as the hooked-nose boy and Wells fought, practically salivating. "Yeah, come on, Murphy, get him."

I let the name settle on my tongue and decided that yes, it suited the hooked-nose boy perfectly. "What are you going to do now, Wells?" someone else spat.

Murphy let that feral grin of his slid onto his lips as he motioned Wells forward. They continued to circle one another. By now, all of the delinquents had formed a ring around the fight, and warm bodies pushed and shoved me from all directions to have a better look. Lottie was beside me in the blink of an eye, wriggling her tiny body through the mass to get to me. "Drew is taking Eden inside the dropship, Twinsie!" she shouted over the animalistic cheers. "He wanted to make sure she didn't get hurt or anything with all these fucking _ASSHOLES_ stampeding!" She sent a bony elbow back and jabbed someone in the stomach to make her point.

I felt a surge of fondness for both Lottie and Drew, at that moment. They had both agreed to help watch after my sister, and they had been nothing but kind to me since we had climbed off the dropship. Maybe they would be more than just my allies. Maybe they could be my friends. I gave Lottie a thumbs up, knowing that she wouldn't be able to hear me if I tried to talk. But when someone else screamed out encouragement to Murphy, my eyes immediately went back to the fight.

"Come on, come on!" Murphy taunted, and when Wells lunged forward again, Murphy kicked him as hard as he could in the ankle. Wells stumbled and nearly fell, barely retaining his balance as he bounced around on one leg, his pain displayed clearly on his face.

I'd had enough, and apparently so had Finn. He shoved his way into the circle and stepped in front of Murphy, holding his hands up. "Kid's got one leg. How about you wait until it's a fair fight?" Finn's pointed look was enough to make Murphy scowl and back away, pushing through the crowd. Wells finally collapsed to the ground, holding his ankle and fighting back a wince. Lottie tapped me on the shoulder and whispered: "Spacewalker is adorable, huh? Want a slice of that?"

I snorted and shook my head, ready to go find Drew and Eden in the dropship. "Not my type, Lottie. Definitely not my type. But have at it, if you want to."

Lottie was about to retort when Octavia bounced over to Finn, a grin on her face. She got close to Finn and batted her eyelashes. "Hey, Spacewalker," she purred. "Save me next time."

Bellamy grimaced and folded his arms over his chest, and Octavia raised her eyebrows at his expression. Finn had been pulled off to chat elsewhere when Octavia shrugged and said innocently: "What? He's cute."

"He's a criminal," Bellamy protested.

Octavia rolled her eyes. "They're all criminals."

I shook my head and fought back a laugh when Lottie began to pout. "Hey, we're not all _dangerous _criminals," she said defensively as we walked away. Then she seemed to realize what Octavia had said about Finn. "And great. Fucking fantastic if I have to compete with _Octavia_, in all her tanned-skin glory." She tried to smooth down her mane of wild blonde waves. "I'm doomed, aren't I?" she asked me dramatically.

If Lottie had been anyone else, I would have been annoyed by this point. But something about the Wulff girl's personality made her likeable even when she was cursing and whining.

We were nearly back to the door of the dropship when Finn intercepted our path. For a moment, I thought he was trying to do it purposely, but then I became aware of Clarke crouched in front of us on the ground beside Wells, tending to his injured leg. Finn shoved his hands into his pockets and shook his long hair out of his eyes, offering Clarke a smile. "Uh, so...Mount Weather. When do we leave?"

Clarke stood up and brushed the dirt off of her already woefully-dirty jeans. "Right now," she replied, looking drained. "We'll be back tomorrow with food."

I blinked and came to a halt. There was no way just she and Finn could carry everything. Wells seemed to notice this too, because he shifted his foot to the side a bit and asked incredulously: "How are the two of you gonna carry enough food for a hundred?"

My offer to come died in my throat when Finn turned around and grabbed Jasper Jordan and an Asian boy with a mop of black hair by the back of their jackets, shoving them in front of him. Both of the boys seemed surprised, yet pleased when they realized they were being included in something important. Finn grinned easily. "Four of us. Can we go now?"

Lottie tugged on my arm, obviously sensing my distress, and I started to follow her into the dropship until Octavia bounded over, breathless, her long hair clinging to her face with sweat. Her eyes were bright as she leaned closer to the group, her gaze locked on Finn. "Sounds like a party. Make it five."

Lottie was already in the dropship by the time I looked back in her direction, and I gave a deep sigh. I needed to help Clarke. I wanted to make a point that I wasn't just all words, and I also needed to carry my own weight if anyone was going to respect me around here. I couldn't get that if I sat with my unconscious sister in the dropship, though that was exactly what I wanted to do. To make sure Eden would have food when she woke up, I needed to sacrifice some time with her now, even if it would hurt to leave her alone. _Well,_ I conceded, kicking a dirt clod under my combat boot-clad foot, _not completely alone_.

I glanced up just as Lottie poked her blonde head around the corner of the dropship, raising an eyebrow questioningly. "Are you coming, or what?"

I bit my lip and looked over at Clarke and the others. Bellamy was now standing beside Octavia, his form rigid as he took in her plan to leave. Jasper and his friend seemed excited, but when he caught me staring, he dropped his gaze to the ground nervously. So he did remember me. He knew what he had done. I didn't want to travel with the boy, but it was beginning to look like there was no other choice. Besides, if I went with the group, it seemed likely that I could learn more about Jasper and his weaknesses. And then maybe, I would be able to hurt him as much as he had hurt me...

"I'm going with Clarke," I told Lottie with a sigh. Her face grew even more incredulous. I twisted my hair and then threw it back over my shoulder. "Listen, I know this is a lot to ask, but could Drew...could he watch out for Eden? I'm not saying 24/7, but could he just keep an eye on her while I'm gone?" Lottie nodded slowly. "Tell him-he'll get that dance when I get back, if he does."

Lottie leaned against the doorway of the dropship, her eyebrow still quirked. "One thing you need to know about my cousin, Twinsie-he's not one of those guys that does things for a reward." Her green eyes were completely serious, for once. "He helps people because he wants to, because he feels like they deserve it. Drew won't care to watch your sister. And neither will I."

I blinked in confusion, taking a step forward. "You could come with me, Lottie. To Mount Weather."

She shook her head slightly and laughed, but there was something in her eyes that was almost...sad. "Wish I could, but my asthma's a bitch. Best if I just stay here with Drew and play nurse."

"Thank you," I breathed, and the words were so full of feeling that Lottie opened her mouth in surprise. "For helping my sister and I. I really appreciate it. Could you tell Drew that, at least?"

Lottie's cheeks tinged pink, and she raked her hands through her hair. "Jeez, Twinsie, no need to get so mushy. But uh, yeah. Yeah, I'll tell Drew." She turned on her heel and then looked over her shoulder a second later, a grin on her lips. "Oh, and watch out for monsters, okay?"

I offered her a small smile in return and dug my hands into the pockets on my jeans. "Will do." Then I turned and walked over to Clarke and the group surrounding her, aware that Bellamy's argument with Octavia was coming to an end. Everyone looked over, but only Clarke seemed glad to see me. "Is there room for one more?" I asked casually, completely ignoring Jasper's gawking.

Clarke nodded and gave me a tight-lipped smile. But the expression quickly dissolved when she caught sight of Finn's wrist. She jabbed a finger to the metallic bracelet on his wrist. "Hey, were you trying to take this off?" she demanded.

Finn shrugged carelessly. "Yeah, so?"

Clarke shook her head in disbelief. "So this wristband transmits your vital signs to the Ark. Take it off, and they'll think that you're dead." I glanced down at my own bracelet, which had been itching ever since they loaded me onto the dropship. I wanted my bracelet off too, despite what Clarke was saying. I didn't owe the Ark anything, and what did they care if I was dead?

Finn's nose wrinkled, and then he had voiced exactly what I had been thinking: "Should I care?"

Clarke huffed out an annoyed breath. "Well, I don't know. Do you want the people you love to think that you're dead? Do you want them to follow you down here in two months? Because they won't if they think that we're dying."

Something like dread swirled in my stomach. I had no one aboard the Ark. My parents were dead, thanks to the thief standing no less than two feet away from me. And once again, I didn't owe the Ark anything. The adults would all come down here and try to take our freedom from us. They didn't _deserve_ to follow us down to Earth after they had basically sacrificed us. As far as I was concerned, Jaha and the Council could stay on the Ark forever. I never wanted to see their faces again.

This was the one thing that I couldn't agree with Clarke on. I vowed that as soon as we got back to camp, I would find some way to take off my bracelet. Finn, on the other hand, relented at Clarke's words and sighed: "Okay."

"Now let's go." Clarke turned, map in hand, and all five of us began to follow. Bellamy reluctantly let Octavia go, and she pressed a kiss to his cheek in excitement before catching up to Jasper and his friend. I brought up the rear, and I was aware that Bellamy was watching his sister with a look of pure anxiety on his face.

"I'll look after her," I told him quietly before I slipped by, and his expression changed from anxious to relieved in a second. Bellamy may have been an arrogant jerk, but he really did care about his sister, and I respected that. And I didn't dislike Octavia, either, so that would make things a bit easier. Bellamy nodded to me, which I assumed was a thank you, but I didn't once break my stride. I was bringing up the rear of the group on Octavia's heels, but the Blake girl was quick to launch herself forward to talk to Clarke. Finn lagged behind and wrapped his arms around Jasper and the other boy, and I tried not to scowl too much at the back of Jasper's head.

This was going to be a very long trip.

XxX

The walking wasn't what was bothering me. It was who I was walking behind. Jasper and his friend Monty, whose name I had gathered from an earlier conversation, were murmuring quietly to themselves, but the sound was grating on my nerves like nothing else. I tried to focus on the scenery instead. The grass was tall and vibrantly green, swaying in the occasional breeze, and the trees were taller in this part of the forest, their knarled limbs covered with moss and reaching up, up to the blue sky. Clarke and Finn were kicking stones and broken branches out of our path up ahead, and I found myself admiring a patch of buttery yellow flowers.

I wanted to stop and admire more of this new world, wanted to feel the cool grass against my back and breathe in the scent of one of those yellow flowers, but I forced myself to keep walking. I couldn't get too distracted, otherwise I would lose the group. Finn had swooped down up ahead and snagged a deep purple flower, one of the ones I had seen earlier at camp, and tucked it behind Octavia's ear with grin.

Octavia smiled up at him suggestively and adjusted her hair, fingers skimming the flower. Finn continued on as Octavia watched him in a daze. Jasper raised his voice ever so slightly and said to Monty, jabbing an elbow into his friend's side: "Now, that, my friend, is game."

Monty's eyebrows were furrowed when he turned his head to examine the flower and Jasper. He seemed slightly amused. "That, my friend, is poison sumac."

Jasper's mouth fell open and he yelped: "What? It is?" as Octavia immediately knocked the flower out of her hair with a gasp, coming to a full stop. I nearly ran into her headfirst.

"The flowers aren't poisonous," Monty assured, glancing over his shoulder at Octavia, who was now trying to catch up. She didn't really seem like she cared to walk alongside me, though. "They're medicinal, calming, actually."

Octavia leaned closer to me and said conspiratorially, "His family grows all the pharmaceuticals on the Ark." I nodded, not having the heart to snap that I didn't really care, considering Monty's knowledge had been used to help Jasper break into my house last year.

Clarke stopped in front of us, turning around to cast us all an exasperated look. "Hey, would you guys try to keep up?"

Finn tugged on a strand of her hair and offered her a lazy smile. "Come on, Clarke. How can you block out all of this?" He flung his arm out to gesture at all the beauty around us, from the brown weeds to the trees the small croppings of flowers scattered around.

Clarke pursed her lips. "Well, it's simple. I wonder, 'why haven't we seen any animals?' Maybe it's because there are none. Maybe we've already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us." Clarke glanced at each of us, shaking her head. "Sure is pretty, though. Come on." And she began to trudge forward again.

I felt like all of my insides had been scooped out and rearranged. I hadn't even thought about the lack of animals. For the first time since I had found Eden unconscious, I felt real, absolute fear. There was a decent possibility that we were dying of radiation poisoning as we spoke. It was all concerning and very morbid. The boys stiffened slightly, and then Jasper muttered, quite unnecessarily: "Maybe someone should slip her some poison sumac."

Monty snorted, and I caught Octavia trying to hide her smile behind her hands. I wanted to smack Jasper in the back of the head. Actually, I wanted to do more than that, but now wasn't the time.

Finn, who I guess finally realized that Clarke was not in a talking mood, lagged back to walk between Jasper and Monty. Octavia watched him adoringly, and I wanted to go choke down some poison sumac myself at the sight. "I got to know what you two did to get busted," Finn said, squeezing Jasper and Monty's shoulders.

I immediately stiffened. This ought to be good. Jasper puffed out his chest and laughed. "Well, sumac is not the only herb in the garden, if you know what I mean."

Anger thrummed through my veins, and I fought to bite my tongue. Monty glared over at Jasper, but the look held no real heat. "Someone forgot to replace what we took," he accused.

Jasper threw his hands up into the air, and his swinging arm almost clocked me in the face. "Someone has apologized, like, a thousand times."

I shoved Jasper out of the way with my shoulder, fury making me see red. He was joking about stealing! Joking about it like he hadn't stolen medicine from my family. Like he wasn't the reason that I no longer _had_ a family. "Nice to know thievery is acceptable as long as you don't get caught," I spat, my eyes narrowed to slits. "Or, you know, as long as you have some brilliant plan to slip away _after_ your caught."

Then I stormed to the front to walk behind Clarke, tears burning my eyes. So much for biting my tongue.

"Jesus," Finn muttered. "She's vicious."

I didn't even bother to say anything back. I just tucked my arms around my torso and kept walking, even when I heard Jasper ask Octavia what they had gotten her for. The pause was awkward, and I wanted to cringe for the Blake girl. What kind of pig-headed asshole would ask her that? Octavia's murmured reply of 'being born' nearly sent a stake through my heart. In the next second, Octavia was bounding to catch up with Clarke and I, her expression stormy. I wanted to reach out and comfort her, but I figured that would be just as appreciated as Jasper's stupid comment.

We walked for a few more minutes until the woods opened up to a field. Clarke motioned for everyone to join us a moment later, and there was wonder on her face for the first time since we had stepped off the dropship. I saw why a second later. There was a deer grazing several yards away, looking large and healthy and _alive_. I gaped, awestruck. Its fur rippled in the breeze, brown and soft-looking, and its tail swished as it continued to eat. Clarke crouched down, and I crouched next to her on one side, Finn on the other. "No animals, huh?" he quietly teased.

Clarke just shook her head, lips pulling back in an amazed smile.

Finn crept forward slowly, still staying crouched as he moved closer to the deer. He was almost a foot in front of us when a twig snapped under his feet, and the deer turned toward us in surprise.

I nearly screamed. The deer had another head sticking grotesquely out of the other one, blistered red and oozing. I slapped my hand over my mouth as the mutated creature scampered off, and Finn stumbled back onto my legs, his face white with shock.

It took several moments for us all to gather our wits, and even after we started walking again, we did so in silence. It was maybe two miles later that Finn finally spoke, making everyone jump slightly. "Hey, you know what I'd like to know? Why send us down today after ninety-seven years? What changed?"

Octavia shrugged and tossed her hair over her shoulder indifferently. "Who cares? I woke up rotting in a cell, and now I'm spinning in a forest."

I had to agree with both of them. It didn't make sense for them to send us down so suddenly. There was no logical explanation for it, after almost one hundred years aboard the Ark. But on the flipside, I didn't really care what the adults' reasoning was. I had been hiding all my life like Octavia, and I had been trapped in a cell for a year after getting caught. I was tired of being caged in, and even though Earth was wild and new to me, it felt more like home than the Ark ever had.

"Maybe they found something on a satellite, you know, like an old weather satellite," Finn mused, running his fingers through his long hair.

Clarke tensed in front of us. She had seemed completely lost in thought until this point. Her blonde hair was falling out of its braid, but she honestly didn't seem to care. She didn't stop walking, but she did slow down enough for all of us to remain in hearing range. "The Ark is dying," she told us all quietly, and I blinked in surprise. That was not what I was expecting to hear at all. Clarke pushed a low-hanging branch out of her way and continued into the thicket. "At its current population level, there's roughly three months left of life support, maybe four now that we're gone."

I tried to wrap my head around the idea. That was why they chose now, of all times, to send us to Earth. Those aboard the Ark needed to see if they could follow us so they _all_ could survive. The horror I was feeling quickly grew when I thought of all the children still aboard the Ark. They were innocent. And if the Ark died, they would too.

Finn was staring at Clarke, his brows furrowed and a frown tugging at his lips. "So that was the secret they locked you up to keep, why they kept you in solitary, Floated your old man?" he asked quietly.

There was pain on every inch on Clarke's face, and I couldn't help but feel for the girl. From what I knew, Jake Griffin had been a good man and an upstanding citizen. But if he had known a secret that involved the whole Ark, he wouldn't have hesitated to tell the citizens the dangers they faced. And that had been his demise and led to Clarke's punishment.

"My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw," she told us all tightly, keeping her eyes straight ahead. We were all dragging our feet after this heavy news. "He thought the people had a right to know," Clarke continued. "The Council disagreed. My mother disagreed. They were afraid it would cause a panic," she said bitterly. "We were gonna public anyway, when Wells..."

Clarke cut off abruptly, leaning up against a moss-covered oak tree. Her eyes were glassy.

"What, turned in your dad?"

Clarke shook her head, but it didn't look like she was disagreeing-more like she was trying to clear it.

I couldn't even imagine that. It had been terrible enough that Jasper had damned me and my sister to the Sky Box as complete strangers, but having someone as close as your best friend betray you like that? It had to be so painful. Now all of Clarke's cold looks and disinterest with Wells made complete sense.

"Anyway," Clarke went on, "the guard showed up before we could. That's why today. That's why it was worth the risk." The slight rasp of Clarke's voice increased as her voice dropped to a whisper. "Even if we all die, at least they bought themselves more time."

Finn was silent for a moment, and the joking, easy-going boy that he had been before was replaced with someone more serious. "They're going to kill more people, aren't they?" he breathed.

A pang went through my chest as I once again thought of all the children.

"Good," Octavia said derisively, baring her teeth. "After what they did to me-" she glanced over at me-"to _us_, I say, Float them all."

Finn shook his head, and his hair went askew. "You don't mean that." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. "We-have to warn them." Monty and Jasper were silent behind us, their eyes wide.

Clarke glanced over at Finn in surprise, and she gave him an appraising look. "That's what my father said."

But Octavia wasn't paying any attention. She had ran ahead, and now I could see exactly why. There, sprawling in front of us, was a clear stream. My eyes widened, and I sucked in a breath of wonder. I had never seen a body of water like this outside my textbooks, and it was incredibly beautiful. More beautiful than I ever could have imagined. The water gurgled, lapping at the side of the shore, and I watched as Octavia climbed on top of the boulder overlooking it all. She began to strip off her pants, throwing them carelessly to the side and standing of the rock in all her tanned-skin glory, as Lottie would have said. She stripped off her jacket a second later, and I made a disapproving noise in the back of my throat.

"Oh, damn," Jasper muttered as he watched the scene, basically drooling. "I love Earth." I had a sudden urge to elbow him in the face.

Even Monty was starstruck. "Oh! Holy..."

Finn simply laughed, and Clarke looked as mortified as I did. "Octavia, what the hell are you doing?"

Octavia grinned and then jumped off the rock, taking my promise to Bellamy with her. Both Clarke and I scrambled to the edge of the rock in a second, our eyes scanning the water for the Blake girl. The boys were right behind us. "Octavia!" Clarke called, distress in her voice. Octavia popped out of the water a second later, slicking her hair back. The smile on her face was infectious.

"I can't swim," Jasper said from behind me. None of us could-there had never been a large body of water for us to learn.

"I know," Octavia agreed, and then she stood up, cocking an eyebrow. Her tank top and underwear clung to her skin, and water cascaded down from her hair and the wet fabric. "But we can stand!" she laughed.

Clarke seemed relieved, if not a bit confused. She glanced down at the map and squinted. "Wait, there's not supposed to be a river here."

Jasper and Monty were already stripping out of their clothes, so I pulled off my jacket and kicked off my shoes. Screw it, I wanted to get in the water too. Finn took Clarke by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Well, there is. So take off your damn clothes."

Clarke gave him a wry smile and was unzipping her jacket when I heard Jasper's worried voice say: "Oh, Octavia...get out of the water."

I glanced over to the Blake girl who had been sunbathing a moment before. Now there was a dark shape in water swimming directly toward her.

"Get out of the water now!" Clarke yelled, running to the edge of the rock and dropping to her knees.

I didn't think. I just remembered Bellamy's face when I had promised to look after his little sister, and I took a running leap over the side of the boulder. I made sure to tuck my legs in on impact so I wouldn't break anything, but then the water was rushing over me, into my ears and nose, and I emerged gasping beside Octavia. I shoved her toward the shore, trying my best to follow, but the water all around made me move sluggishly. Octavia was almost to the rocks when I felt something latch onto my leg and drag me back under the water.

I held my breath but panic was setting in, and all I wanted to do was scream. The creature dragged me along roughly, its teeth sinking deeper into my thigh as water rushed into my mouth. I tried to pull myself to the surface, but I had barely gasped in a breath of air before I was dragged under again. I was starting to feel lightheaded as the creature dragged me along, and my thrashing became more legarthic. I heard the others screaming my name from above, but there was nothing I could do at this point. I didn't want to die, but then I started considering all the possibilities of death. It was possible I could be with my parents again if that happened. And that wouldn't be so bad, would it?

Suddenly, there was a huge disturbance in the water a few feet away, and the creature unclamped its jaws from my leg. I broke the surface a second later, gasping in breath after breath of clean, fresh oxygen. There was someone in the water next to me now. I stared at Jasper in shock, but his arms wrapped more tightly around my torso as he tried to drag us both over to the rocks. "Can you get to shore now?" Clarke called, and I blinked water out of my eyes. I was seeing stars, but I managed to nod weakly, trying to move to aid Jasper. The pain in my leg was searing. I bit my lip and fought back another gasp.

"I got you," Jasper whispered, his graphic T-shirt plastered to him. His goggles were no longer on his head, which let his wet hair hang in front of his deep brown eyes. I was startled by just how close he was to me now, trying to support my weight.

"It's coming back," Finn said worriedly.

Clarke ran along the bank, crouching down as close to us as she could. "It's headed right for you, guys," she added urgently. Sure enough, when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw the shadow of the creature just below the water.

"Come on, come on!" Finn urged, motioning us to the bank. "Keep going!"

Jasper gave one final pull forward and then launched both of us up onto the nearest rock. I spluttered, trying to gasp as much air in as I could, clinging to Jasper's wet T-shirt. My head was cradled against his chest for a moment, and his fingers were tangled in my dark hair. "Okay," he breathed, letting me stay there so I could try to gather my bearings.

"Thank you," I finally managed to gasp out. I looked into Jasper's eyes, which were wide with concern, and I tried to understand. Maybe this was his way of trying to make his debt to me even. I wasn't sure. But the way he was staring down at me now...all I could see in his eyes was fear. I pulled back from his chest and rested my head on the rock underneath me, blinking water out of my eyes. Or maybe it was tears.

Clarke crouched down next to us and rolled up my pant leg, inspecting the damage that the river creature had done. Then she ripped off a piece of Jasper's T-shirt and used it as a tourniquet for my leg, which was bloody and irritated at the spot where the creature had bit me. I winced at the sudden pressure, but Clarke took one of my hands and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "You're gonna be okay, Elodie."

Jasper struggled to sit up, and he was still watching me as Monty and Finn clapped their hands on his back. Octavia knelt beside me, still shivering and wet, and without hesitation, she wrapped me up in a hug. "Thank you. Thank you, Elodie. You saved me," she whispered into my hair, clinging to me. Something warm spread through my chest when I hugged her back. I couldn't imagine going back to camp and telling Bellamy that something had happened to his sister, so I had acted in the only way I knew how. It was instinct, but as I hugged Octavia back tightly, I knew that this would cement our friendship, too. I had proved myself worthy by accident.

"Note to self," Monty murmured a second later, a small smile on his lips. "Next time, save the girl."

I gave a breathless laugh, and all the others followed suit.

XxX

My leg was still throbbing when Finn finally pulled me to my feet, but I could walk, though I limped a bit. Clarke watched me warily, and Octavia was right there by my side, offering her shoulder when it got to be a bit much to keep walking. Luckily, at this point, we were almost done with our journey. Clarke had been examining the map carefully and glancing around at our surroundings. "We're getting really close," she informed us after a while of walking along the riverside.

I tried to regain my footing on the rocky ground, but I ended up crashing into Monty's back before Octavia could catch me, which nearly sent us both to our knees. Monty, however, was quicker than he looked, and twisted around last second to pull my arm over his shoulder. I blinked at him in surprise, and he offered me a smile that was completely different than any of the others'-it wasn't like Jasper's mischevious smirk or Finn's lazy lilt of the lips. It was sweet, the kind of smile someone gave you when they enjoyed your company or thought you were mildly amusing. "You're having some issues today, huh?" he asked me quietly, continuing to walk. Octavia stayed behind me just in case I fell, and Jasper walked alongside her silently. I could feel his eyes on the back of my head.

"You have no idea," I mumbled, wincing slightly as my jeans brushed up against the tender area of my wound. Monty gave a small laugh but didn't ask any questions, and in that moment, it didn't matter that he and Jasper were friends. I really liked the kid.

We were still traveling along the bank of the river when Clarke stumbled across an old rope swing attached to one of the lower branches of a tree, and she gave it an almighty tug before deeming it worthy to use. "Instead of drowning or getting eaten by sea monster," Jasper said, crossing his arms over his chest. His shirt was still dripping wet. "Sounds like a good plan."

Octavia seemed really excited to use the swing, but I was just trying to imagine the way I could swing and jump off without injuring myself any further. "I could catch you," Finn offered after seeing my nose wrinkle as I pondered, but that just made me snort.

"No, thank you. I've had enough damsel in distress for one day, thanks." And maybe it sounded a bit rude, but I was stubborn.

So Finn offered to go first, grasping the rope in his hands like it was a live snake. He didn't really seem like he was as confident as he had been acting, now that I thought about it. He spent nearly five minutes contemplating on the hillside before Clarke gave an exasperated groan. "You wanted to go first," she pointed out. "Now quit stalling."

Finn's face had gone a bit ashy, but he forced a smile. "Mount

Weather awaits."

"If you decide to go sometime this year," I piped, and Monty laughed. I felt it vibrate through my bones.

"Just hold on till the apogee, and you'll be fine," Jasper said helpfully.

Finn's brow furrowed, and a huge chunk of brown hair fell into his eyes. "The apogee like the Indians, right?" he questioned.

Jasper blinked, and then his mouth twisted up in a smile. His eyebrows were high on his forehead like they always were when he was amused. "Apogee, not Apache."

I wanted to roll my eyes. Clarke did. "He knows," she sighed. "Today, Finn."

Finn seemed to have finally gathered his courage, because his hands were gripping the rope so tightly his knuckles were turning white, and he was examining the rocky bank on the other side carefully. "Aye aye, captain. See you on the other side." Finn was about to take and run and leap, but at the last second, Jasper stepped out in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait."

Finn gave Jasper a curious look. "What?"

"Let me," Jasper offered, pushing his dark hair off his head. Since it had started to dry, the ends were curling upward, which made him hard to take serious. "I can do it."

Octavia waltzed over to Jasper's side, her grin bright and infectious. She knocked his shoulder against her own. "Knew there was a badass in there somewhere," she told him with a laugh.

Jasper seemed struck by her, his eyes widening. He tried smiling a Finn smile, but it didn't look right on his mouth. Monty's pursed lips made me think he agreed with me.

But the fear in Jasper's eyes was all his. In that moment, it wasn't too hard to see the goggled boy who had broken into my house a year before, terrified and desperate to escape. It was hard to imagine that he would be the one to tell of my existence. The boy that had jumped into the water to save me, who had no tact but wasn't actually an outrageous asshole...he didn't seem like the type to turn me in.

But then again, people did horrible things when they felt cornered, and my knowledge of his theft had set Jasper off. So as I watched him, I tried to picture him as someone other than the villain in my story. But that was difficult. In the year I had been imprisoned, Jasper Jordan had been the one I centered most of the blame on, besides myself. I wasn't just going to forgive him because he had saved my life. Not when hee had ended two others. Some part of me still wanted him dead, but not...as much. I still hated the boy, even though he made it hard, even though he had saved me. I just hated him a little less than before.

Finn patted Jasper on the back when he saw the fear in his eyes. "Hey, it's okay to be afraid, Jasper. The trick is not fighting it."

"Fear keeps you awake," I said immediately, because it was something my father used to say to me when I was small and was scared to go into the dark of the Den alone. Fear kept you aware, is what the saying meant. It kept your senses sharp and your eyes opened. I wasn't quite sure why I was sharing the phrase with Jasper.

Something in his eyes softened when he heard my words, and at the same time, he squared his jaw, holding on more firmly to the rope. "See you on the other side!" he called, and then he was swinging across the small section of the river, his feet pedaling through the air almost comically. Jasper shrieked and whooped all the way over, finally landing in the brush with a celebratory yell. "Whoo, yeah! We are apogee! Yeah!"

Clarke was even grinning at this point. "Yeah!" she yelled encouragingly, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Octavia pumped her fist into the air, her hair swirling up behind her. "Yeah! Whoo!"

"You did it, Jasper!" Clarke exclaimed hoarsely, cupping her hand around her mouth to be heard.

Jasper was grinning like an idiot and waving his arms around, and I couldn't help but smile, even briefly. There was just something so innocent and happy in his face, and for half a second, I wanted to believe he was a different person.

Finn handed off the rope to Clarke, his eyebrows raising slightly. "Let's go, Princess. You're up."

Clarke grabbed the rope and stepped up to the edge of the rock we were standing on. There were choked weeds underneath her boots. "Come on, Clarke!" Jasper hooted. "You got this. Whoo, apogee!" Monty snorted back a laugh as Clarke continued to grin, readying herself.

Jasper had apparently backed into something, because a second later he was kneeling in the tall grass and picking up an object. From where I stood, it looked metallic, thin and rusted and rectangular-shaped. Jasper held it up, and the sight of the words on the sign nearly made my heart stop. "We did it!" Jasper cheered, jumping up and down as he held the sign over his head. "Mount Weather!"

Octavia clapped her hands together and threw her head back to look at the sky. "Yes!"

Everyone started yelling, including me, and then we were shrieking so loudly that it seemed to echo through the air. I was filled with joy, in that moment. I forgot, for a second, that my parents had been Floated, that my sister was currently unconscious back at camp, and that I hated Jasper Jordan. I cheered along with the others because it felt right, because I could feel Earth humming in my bones, and because I just needed to yell and have myself be heard.

Everything was fine until a spear came flying from somewhere overhead and buried itself deeply into Jasper's chest.

The shock was immediate. Everyone's eyes went wide, and then Clarke was the first one to speak, her voice raspy. "Jasper." Finn held onto her arm, but his chest was heaving as he took in the sight of Jasper's impaled body a few yards away. Monty wasn't moving. My arm was still around his neck, and he was still holding me upright, but other than that, he was made of stone. He was staring disbelievingly at Jasper's limp form.

"Come on, come on, come on," Finn muttered, finally breaking out of his trance. "Jasper!"

"Jasper!" Clarke called again, and this time it was more desperate. She almost pulled herself over the edge of the rock-Finn had to pull her back when it began to crumble underneath her feet. "No," she whispered, horror in her eyes. "Come on."

I felt my own horror consuming me. "Oh my god," I choked, covering my hand with my mouth. I felt like I was going to be sick. Monty pulled me over the the slight drop off in the rock where Finn was motioning for us crouch down, his face ghostly white.

Octavia and Monty huddled beside me, and Finn had to physically force Clarke away from the edge of the boulder. "Get down, get down," he was murmuring, and then Clarke was there kneeling beside us, looking absolutely wrecked.

Octavia's blue eyes were locked on Jasper's prone form, and I saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "Come on."

For half a moment, everything was silent. But then there was a fluttering in the woods, and it sounded like it was coming from all directions, consuming every other noise. There was a sound that sounded suspiciously like footsteps, a slithering noise like feet over grass and twigs, and then silence yet again. It was eerie. And some part of me knew exactly what it meant, deep down, though I didn't want to believe it. I tucked my head against Monty's shoulder and squeezed my eyes shut, not caring how weak I looked. I was trying to will this nightmare out of existence.

"We're not alone," Clarke finally said, and her voice was tremulous, confirming each and every one of my fears.

_We're not alone_.

**Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I'm so glad that you're already enjoying the story, because I have a lot in store for Elodie and the gang. There is so much that I love about writing this story, and I think that mainly stems from the amount of characters that are present. Every scene just clicks in a fantastic way that I love to write, and I can't wait to put out more. If you want to make some suggestions known or know more about my OC characters, you're always free to review and/or send me a message. Reviews are much appreciated!**

**~Harley**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3: Interference**

There were no words to describe what I was feeling. My heart was in my throat, and my breathing was ragged as I buried my cheek into Monty's shoulder. I wanted to disappear.

I just kept seeing Jasper's look of utter shock as the wooden spear went through his chest. Monty was clinging to me just as much as I was clinging to him, his blunt nails digging into the thin fabric of my jacket. Finn was the only one who seemed alert-everyone else was completely shell-shocked. "Clarke!" he hissed, panic lacing his words. He tugged on the blonde girl's arm. "Come on!"

He grabbed Monty's arm and then looked to me. "Monty, Elodie, come on! We got to go!"

I stumbled to my feet, feeling dizzy, and tried to pull Monty up with me. He wouldn't budge. Octavia's sweat-soaked face was full of fear as she stood up from where she had been huddled with the rest of us. "Monty, get up!" she said urgently, and I held out a hand to him. He took it, his eyes still dazed, and then swallowed hard.

We all stumbled down the side of the boulder together, keeping our backs flat against the rock as we moved along. Monty's hand remained in my own, and as long as he didn't say anything, I wouldn't either. We both needed comfort at the moment. "Who are they?" Finn gasped after we all came to a halt. He ran his hands through his long hair and looked over to Clarke, who was trembling. "_What _are they?"

Crows squawked overhead, and the sound only made my skin crawl more. Everything seemed far less beautiful now. The trees looked tall and menacing, and the sun made their shadows look like hungry things creeping along the ground. The whispers through the branches seemed like warnings, and every caw from above was a death sentence. Earth was dangerous, and we had known that from the beginning. But with all its beauty, I don't think we actually _believed_ it until right then.

Octavia squeezed her eyes shut and leaned her head back against the rock, trying to control her breathing. "We are so screwed."

There were a few beats of absolute silence, and then a scream filled the air, full of agony. Everyone jumped, and Clarke climbed to her feet on shaking legs. My fingers grasped at the fabric of Monty's red leather jacket. "Jasper," Clarke breathed, eyes wide. "He's alive."

Before anyone else could protest, Clarke was sliding out from behind the huge boulder, her shoulders squared as she made her way toward the trees to get a better look.

Finn launched himself forward and grabbed her by the arm. "Clarke, wait! Wait! Wait." He leaned over her shoulder and tried to pull her back. "Stay out of the trees."

But Clarke wasn't paying attention. Her blonde hair had almost completely come out of its braid, and pieces clung to her face with sweat as she trekked across the small bridge of land that lead over to the other side. She was staring intently at the spot where Jasper had been lying, her chest heaving. She turned to Finn and pointed at the blood soaked ground. "He was right there."

Monty, Octavia, and I quickly followed Clarke over to the other side, coming shoulder to shoulder with Finn. Wet moss squished under my boots, and I kicked some of the vegetation off of my feet as I examined the spot Clarke had been pointing at. There was fresh blood all over the ground next to the sign Jasper had been holding, and the sight of it made bile climb my throat. "No," Monty whispered, his eyes searching the bank. There was no sign of Jasper, save the blood they left behind. "Where is he?"

And that's when I saw it. The trail of blood leading from where Jasper had been standing all the way up into the woods. I lost sight of it when the trail went into a thicket of trees. My stomach flopped sickeningly. "They took him," I answered, realization making my mouth go dry.

I looked to Clarke, hoping that she would deny it. But her nod was solemn and completely sure. "They took him," she agreed quietly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The walk back to camp was grueling. Night would come crawling in a few hours-Clarke's prediction of the journey taking until tomorrow morning wasn't quite correct, but no one was complaining. No one wanted to travel through these woods at night. And not only were we all exhausted, but the shock of losing Jasper and the disappointment of not making it to Mount Weather to collect the food was weighing heavily on everyone. Plus, my leg was aching every time I put my full weight on it. Everything about the situation looked bleak. We all trudged along with our heads down, jumping at every snap of a branch or scuffle in the trees.

This is what we had been reduced to-a bunch of scared children running from the monsters in the forest. Only in our case, these monsters knew their surroundings much better than we did, and they had one of our own.

Some part of me- the horrible part that it was-was actually relieved that the ground people had taken Jasper. That meant I would no longer have to look at his face knowing that he was the reason my parents were dead. But another part of me, the girl that had always hid in her sister's shadow-she felt something else. Sorrow. I could see it in Monty's eyes, the way he walked with his shoulders hunched and his head hung. He loved Jasper like a brother, and the Jordan boy had been ripped from him quickly and messily. I didn't blame him for hurting.

Needless to say, I was conflicted. Because there was Jasper, the smiling, joking Jasper who had jumped into the water to save me without a second thought. And then there was a coward of a boy who had broken into my house one day, a thief, and when he left, he became a murderer. I didn't know which version was real, or if they both were in some odd sort of way.

So I let my mind drift away from Jasper Jordan and tried not to think that fate was catering to me in a sick way, since not even a few hours before I had wished him dead.

Clarke was the first to step back over the threshold into camp, and we followed her silently, sluggish and mourning in more ways than one. I gritted my teeth as a fallen tree limb jabbed me in the thigh close the where the river creature had bitten me and continued to move forward. Finn stayed close to me, his shoulders brushing mine every once in a while, almost reassuring. Monty walked behind me, and Octavia remained at his side, wordlessly sending us all pained looks. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but the words had escaped her.

We were all surprised when we came back through the thicket of trees and stepped into a madhouse. There were kids gathered in groups, but there was a huge ring of people gathered around one spot in particular. Finn muttered something under his breath and I groaned lowly. There was only one reason people would be gathered like that-someone was fighting again, and I could probably guess who.

Clarke shoved into the group first, appalled by everyone's obvious bloodlust. "Enough, Murphy," she snapped, glaring at the the ragged boy with the icy blue eyes. His lips curled back in disdain when his eyes slid over Clarke.

Everyone perked up when they realized that we had returned. Wells crossed his arms over his chest and stepped back from Atom, who was still glaring daggers at the Jaha boy. For a moment, their dispute was forgotten.

Bellamy appeared seemingly out of nowhere, swooping in to grasp Octavia by the shoulders, assessing her for any damage. "Octavia," he breathed, his dark eyes searching, "are you alright?"

She gave him a half exasperated, half fond smile. "Yeah, thanks to Elodie. She slayed the sea monster that was after me." Her tone was almost joking, but the gratitude was evident in her voice if you were really listening. Bellamy picked up on it immediately and took in my wounded leg, his eyebrows drawing together. There was something decisive in his expression then, something softer and less asshole-ish.

He nodded to me. "Thanks for that, Chambers."

The sincerity of Bellamy's words made my cheeks heat up traitorously. I coughed and said it was no problem, inching away from the Blake siblings and back into the crowd. Clarke was still standing in the middle of the group, looking highly unimpressed with everyone's antics. She seriously had the whole disappointed-mother vibe going on. Even though I had been trying to get away from both Bellamy and Octavia after the odd thank-you I had gotten, Bellamy didn't seem to get the message. He and his sister sidled up next to me a moment later, but Bellamy's eyes were trained solely on Clarke. "Where's the food?" he asked, his words making everyone stir. It was as though they had completely forgotten about necessity of eating until it was mentioned.

Bile crept up the back of my throat. I saw Jasper getting speared all over again, I felt myself underwater, my lungs close to bursting... I blinked several times and bit my lip, trying not to look guilty.

Octavia shifted uncomfortably next to me, tucking her hair behind her ears. "We didn't make it to Mount Weather," she admitted, kicking at the lumpy ground at her feet. Everyone was silent. Confused and questioning. I searched the crowd for Lottie and Drew. They were nowhere to be seen, so I figured that they were still in the dropship with Eden.

My chest felt like it was going to cave in from the weight of Octavia's words.

Bellamy examined us all again as the murmurs started, just starting to take in our startled, ragged state. "What the hell happened out there?"

I felt like sinking to the ground and crying, but I was surrounded by people and I didn't have time to look weak. I had spent most of my life doing that. Instead, I gritted my teeth and met the gazes of those around me. Some of the kids were glaring, already accusing us of ruining everything. Many others seemed confused, and a select few seemed genuinely afraid.

"We were attacked," Clarke said loudly, and that shut everyone up quickly. Even Murphy and his crew looked surprised, their grit-covered faces crinkling briefly. I was terrified for a moment of what would happen if Clarke actually told the group what had happened. For just a moment, I wanted her to lie, to tell them about the river creature and leave it at that. Because if she told them about the ground people...panic could ensue instantly.

"Clarke," I breathed, and it came out much more soft and pleading than I had anticipated. There was nothing sharp about it. Monty, who was standing to my right, stared at me with wide eyes. He hadn't spoken since we left the bank where the ground people had taken Jasper. He seemed to understand what I was thinking, but we couldn't stop the reveal.

"Attacked?" Bellamy pursed his lips. "By what?"

Finn, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet until this point, swallowed hard. "Not what. Who. It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last Grounder."

Finn's words settled over the crowd, and the murmurs and whispers that followed swept over everyone, a warning ocean wave hitting the shore.

At this point, someone had come up beside me and placed their hand on my shoulder. When I turned around to see who it was, I was met with green, horror-filled eyes. Lottie didn't loosen her hold on my shoulder, but her other hand did go up to cover her mouth momentarily, and then settled in her mane of white-blonde hair. "_Fuc_k," she murmured, staring at Finn like he had just dropped the sky on her head. Well, essentially, he had.

"It's true," Clarke confirmed, her voice growing stronger as she stepped forward. Everyone watched her intently, barely breathing. "It's true. Everything we thought about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors." There was a collective intake of breath. "The good news is," she continued, voice hopeful, "that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us."

Finn shook his shaggy head and said darkly: "Yeah, the bad news is: the Grounders will."

Both Octavia and I shot him a poisonous glare, and Monty paled considerably.

Bellamy, who had been examining each one of us with high levels of scrutiny, stopped his staring and searched the crowd. When he couldn't find what he was looking for, he looked back to Clarke, whose shoulders were already sagging under the weight of the realization that we weren't alone. "Where's the kid with the goggles?"

Monty's face crumpled, and he squeezed his eyes shut. I instantly placed my hand on his shoulder, trying my best to comfort him. But honestly, I wasn't the best with people. Lottie shifted beside me, peering around Octavia to get a better look at Monty. Her eyes softened when she saw his distress, and there was nervousness in her gaze as well. I was so caught up paying attention to those two that I almost didn't hear Clarke say: "Jasper was hit. They took him."

They took him. I swallowed. What a terrible thing, if Jasper was still alive after that spear to the chest. That meant he was not only a prisoner, but severely wounded as well. It would have been better if the Grounders had killed him.

I blinked when Clarke looked down at Murphy's wrist and frowned. "Where's your wristband?"

There was a beat of silence in which several people shifted slightly, the movement speaking of guilt. Bellamy did not move. He nodded to Murphy, a hooded look in his eyes, and said: "Tell her."

Clarke looked around at the group, her eyes widening as her hands curled into fists. She was afraid to know the answer, and she was already preparing herself to be angry at the one Murphy provided for her. He didn't disappoint. "Twenty-four and counting," he answered smugly, his smile almost as greasy as his hair. I had a sudden urge to punch him in the face. Clarke looked like the feeling was mutual.

Lottie dropped her hand from my shoulder and rubbed her wrist absently. Her wristband had been damaged, but it was still on her wrist and fully functional. Mine was still clinging to my wrist, too, metal warm and unyielding against my flesh, and I wanted it off badly. But for a moment, the look on Clarke's face made me change my mind. "You idiots," she hissed. There was panic in her eyes now. "Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know if the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever it is out there." Clarke spun in a circle, meeting as many pairs of eyes as she could. "If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them. You're killing us!"

Lottie stared down at Murphy's bare wrist, and I couldn't help but do the same. To Clarke, it was a death sentence. But to us, the people that didn't have anything to leave behind, the ones who didn't have anything left to lose...it was freedom. And I wanted it badly.

I rubbed my wrist, becoming aware of how warm and unnatural the wristband felt against my skin. Someone bumped into my leg just then, and I yelped before I could stop myself. Lottie grabbed my elbow reflexively and snarled a warning at the freckled culprit. He raised his hands and backed up, looking sheepish as he retreated. Lottie turned her green eyes on me. "You get a little banged up, Twinsie?" she asked quietly, her gaze flickering down to my leg.

I shrugged, but she could probably see the wince I was trying to hide. "A bit," I admitted. I wasn't looking at Lottie anymore, though. My attention had been caught by Clarke and Bellamy, who were practically standing chest to chest in the middle of the huge group of delinquents. Clarke's proclamation of us killing the people of the Ark, ourselves included, didn't seem to sit well with all of the others. They were restless around me, shifting anxiously from foot to foot, their murmurs gathering into something of disarray.

Bellamy was the first to move closer to Clarke, and his height and stance dwarfed her. His eyes were dark like an overcoming storm when his lips curled back in a sneer. His anger was a palpable thing, strewn across the tense line of his shoulders and the curling edges of his fists. "We're stronger than you think." He tore his gaze away from Clarke and let it pin down the crowd instead. "Don't listen to her," he implored. "She's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good." Bellamy's voice rose. "How many of you can say the same?" The question hung thick in the air, and everyone already knew the answer.

Octavia looked up at her brother, surprised but silent. She was going to let him do this. Clarke said nothing, but her jaw was set in disapproval. "We can take care of ourselves," Bellamy continued. "That wristband on your arm? It makes you a prisoner."

I looked down at my arm again, and Lottie did the same. The words stung, reminding me of my cell, of years and years cramped in a tiny hideaway. Years of being alive, but not really. All because of the people on the Ark, the Council and Jaha. I had been a prisoner since the moment I was born. "We not prisoners anymore!" Bellamy yelled. "They say they'll forgive your crimes." He turned in a circle, spreading his arms for a moment. His eyes met mine. "I say you're not criminals! You're fighters, survivors!" Tears pricked in my eyes, and I had to swallow to hold them back. "The Grounders should worry about us!"

"Yeah!" A girl with dreads a few yards away from me screamed.

"Yeah!" said another, and then there was a rallying chant and a few whoops as Bellamy cast Clarke one last scathing look and was swallowed by a crowd of admirers. Octavia hung back and sent me a meaningful look from across the field, then disappeared into the mass of people. Murphy remained close to Bellamy's side, smile bone-chilling and predatory in the afternoon light.

I was rooted to the spot. Lottie stayed beside me as others pushed past, making sure no one else knocked into my leg. When the others had shifted to flock around Bellamy, it was just Finn, Clarke, Monty, Lottie and I standing close together. I was still lost in thought.

The thing was, I agreed with Bellamy. I didn't want my wristband on anymore, and I knew Lottie didn't either. I wasn't sure of her reasoning, but for me, Bellamy's words had been enough. I wasn't a criminal, and I had been treated like one for as long as I could remember, even by my parents and my own twin sister. The Ark had made me something that I wasn't, but I had shaped myself out of their expectations and decided that I could create a new life here on Earth.

But I couldn't do that if the people of the Ark came down.

I didn't agree with Bellamy's claim that because Clarke was privileged, or had been privileged, she would have it any easier when they came down, but everything else-everything else was what I had been waiting to hear.

I looked up at Clarke, and she seemed lost. Her blonde hair was tangled and frizzing in the heat, and her normally bright eyes were shadowed as she stared down at the mud on her combat boots.

Finn, who had his hand on her shoulder for a brief, reassuring squeeze, ducked his head to meet her gaze. "What do we do now?"

Clarke blinked, and then blinked again, trying to let go of Bellamy's words, trying to let them slide off of her without injuring. She looked like she was fighting hard to reclaim the determined set of her jaw. "Now we go after Jasper," she murmured.

Finn stared and said nothing, and Monty perked up at his friend's name, though his eyes remained a little vacant.

Dread immediately twisted in my gut. I almost didn't notice Wells making his way toward our tiny group until he was right beside me. "There you are," he said to Clarke, as if she had been hiding from him. His broad shoulders were folded in a bit to give him the look of someone unthreatening, but Clarke didn't seem impressed. She looked almost as fed up with Wells as she had with Bellamy. Clarke looked down at Wells' mangled ankle, her nose wrinkling.

He sighed, and the noise seemed to set something off in Finn. He backed away from both of them and folded his arms, sending a glare Wells' way. I leaned sideways to relieve the pressure from my injured leg for a minute as I watched the exchange, but it turned out I was more off-balanced than anticpated. I teetered and almost fell, but Lottie grabbed one of my elbows and Monty grabbed the other. They traded a look then, as they held onto me, that seemed almost...familiar? Lottie was the first to look away, her pale cheeks going pink. Monty said nothing, and I didn't ask. It was probably a story for another time. "Careful there, Twinsie," Lottie muttered, not sparing me a glance. "Don't bust your ass, m'kay?"

"You're making friends fast," Clarke observed dryly. Wells huffed a bit. "You need to keep that covered, by the way, so it doesn't get infected." She nodded to his ankle, then looked up again. Her brows furrowed when she took in the heavy-looking bag on his shoulder. "Nice pack."

Wells' mouth quirked off to the side. "Yeah, seatbelts and insulation. I also packed part of the parachute," he added, looking from Clarke to the rest of us. "Figured we could use it to carry out Jasper."

Clarke pursed her lips. "Good. Give it to someone else. You're not coming with us."

Wells' frowned and glanced down at his leg. "My ankle's fine."

"It's not your ankle, Wells, it's you."

We all winced at the bluntness of Clarke's voice, but I couldn't say I blamed her. If Wells' betrayal had led to her father's death, she had every right to treat him like she was. Jasper's decision to rat out my family had made him Enemy #1 in an instant, and I had barely known him for a few seconds before he went darting out my front door. Clarke had known Wells since she was a kid, and nothing could fix what he had done to her.

Wells looked decidedly hurt, like a kicked puppy. His eyes were dark with something akin to grief. Or maybe regret... "You came back for reinforcements," he barrelled on tragically. "I'm gonna help."

"Did you ever think that maybe she doesn't want you there, Jaha?"

Everyone turned to look in my direction, startled. I had been trying to gather my thoughts, trying and failing to come up with words to express how I was feeling. I was still a bit in shock. We had landed on Earth, I had been attacked by a river creature, and Jasper had been stolen away by the Grounders-people that weren't even supposed to be alive-all in the matter of a few hours. My mind hadn't taken kindly to all the sensory overload, but Wells' insistence to follow Clarke into oblivion had broken me out of my reverie. I felt like he was poking and prodding at Clarke's wounds, unintentionally or not, and it was starting to piss me off a little bit more than it should have. Our situations were so similiar that I felt a connection with Clarke, almost like the connection I'd felt with Octavia.

Wells just stared at me, open-mouthed, until Finn butted in. "Clarke, Wells is right. We need him." He said it almost grudgingly, capturing his bottom lip between his teeth for half a moment. His eyes went to me and then skittered away. "No one else has volunteered."

The chatter of the group that had moved a few feet away got louder all of a sudden, crescendoing into uproarious laughter. Lottie picked at a scab on her finger and let her mane of hair cover her eyes. She wasn't planning to go to Jasper's rescue, and I couldn't, even if I had been able to. Plus, what was the use in it? It wouldn't really make us even after he had saved my life, would it, because he had done that out of some stupid sort of bravery, and I would be going to him out of obligation to repay a debt? But then again, what debt? Jasper may have saved me, but he had damned my parents without a second thought. One good deed didn't cancel out a bad one.

Monty, who had been as quiet as me this whole time, let go of my arm and stepped forward, opening his mouth. His eyes were focusing again, and they became eager at the prospect of saving Jasper.

Clarke, however, shook her head when the Green boy moved toward her. "I'm sorry, Monty, but you're not coming, either." Her eyes were solemn.

The breeze ruffled Monty's flop of black hair, and a frown cut across his features so suddenly and severely that we all blinked. "Like hell I'm not," he said emphatically, his tone daring someone to question him. "Jasper is my best friend." If anyone else would have given that as a reason, it would have sounded hollow. But when Monty said it, he was stating a fact. _The sky is blue. Water is wet._ _Jasper is my best friend._

Lottie was staring at Monty in that familiar way again, and it piqued some sort of curiosity in me. I made a mental note to ask her about it later. Wells and Finn remained silent by Clarke's side, watching Monty like people looked at dogs they knew had to be put down. Clarke's expression grew more fierce, and more pleading. "You're too important. You were raised by Farm Station and recruited by engineering."

I blinked in surprise. That was-impressive. More than impressive, actually. Practically unheard of, is what it was.

But it didn't seem like reason enough for Monty to budge on his decision. "So?" he shot back.

"So food and communication," Clarke said pointedly. She mimed tapping his head. "What's up here, it's going to save us all. You figure out how to talk to the Ark and I'll bring Jasper back." Clarke's gaze was clear and meaningful, and reluctantly, Monty nodded and took a step back. I pulled away from Lottie and hobbled to his side, muttering, "He'll be fine," under my breath just for him. His shoulders relaxed a bit, but I could tell he was still upset.

"Elodie, I don't think you should come, either, not with you're leg like that." Clarke jerked her chin to my bandaged leg, which had just started oozing blood again. "It'll make you an easy target and slow us down." Wells seemed briefly taken aback by Clarke's blunt words, but I simply nodded. It didn't offend me in the slightest, because it was true, and logical.

"Fine by me," I agreed amiably, latching my fingers around Monty's wrist. The kid really needed to sit down. He was practically swaying on his feet.

Clarke ignored Wells and looked over to Finn, one eyebrow cocked. "Hey. You ready?"

Finn gritted his teeth momentarily, trying to gather his words. "I'm not going anywhere, and neither should any of you," he finally sighed, letting his hands drop to his sides. He already looked defeated, and there was something in his eyes...fear. "That spear was thrown with pinpoint accuracy from 300 feet." He said it like he expected Clarke to agree with him.

Clarke instead looked outraged and stepped into his personal space, which made Lottie snicker. "So what, we let Jasper die?" Clarke demanded. "That's not going to happen." Clarke looked Finn up and down for a second and then shook her head in disgust. "Spacewalker? What a joke. You think you're such an adventurer. You're really just a coward."

Finn just shook his head. "It's not an adventure, Clarke, it's a suicide mission." His gaze was imploring.

Clarke's own stare was frigid. "Jasper looked up to you."

He looked at the other people around him and then finally sighed in defeat. "Build a wall when we're gone. Use the fallen trees."

I moved to step in front of Monty and hissed, my leg burning as the bite wound throbbed. I hadn't noticed, but Bellamy had pushed his way back through the crowd and was listening to us. His eyes locked on my leg, and in a swift movement, he was squatted down next to me, examining the tourniquet around my thigh. Clarke and Finn were still staring at each other tensely, but I could only look at Bellamy as he gently pulled the ragged shred of Jasper's shirt away from my wound. A string of filthy explicitives flew out of my mouth just as Octavia walked up, but she said nothing, simply quirking an eyebrow. My grip on Monty's wrist tightened.

"What the hell was it?" Bellamy asked. He shot Octavia a stern look. "And don't say sea monster."

"I don't know," I answered truthfully.

Octavia shuddered. "It looked like a giant snake."

Bellamy shook his head and looked back down at the bite. "You could have been killed," he said softly, and I knew the words were for his sister, not me. "But Elodie saved you." There was something like grudging respect blooming in Bellamy's eyes, and even though I was in pain, a small smile tugged at my lips.

"And Elodie would have been dead if it weren't for Jasper jumping in after her," Clarke chimed in, seemingly done with her staring match with Finn.

My smile melted right off of my face.

Octavia took in all of the shifting forms and pulled a piece of her long, dark hair away from her mouth. Understanding danced in her eyes. "You guys are leaving? I'm coming too." Her words were decisive, and she dusted off her hands for show.

Bellamy was already climbing to his feet and shaking his head. "No, no, no. Not again, O." His jaw was set, and Octavia pouted at the sight, crossing her arms over her chest.

The group of delinquents was slowly milling back in our direction, perking up at the raised voices and sounds of disapproval. I wrinkled my nose. They were like rabid dogs...

Murphy watched intently from the sidelines, and Mbege stood at his right shoulder, whispering something to him. Murphy gave that bone-chilling smile of his and leaned forward, his eyes on me. He was eying me like a piece of meat. I diverted my gaze and instead looked back to Octavia, who was still being denied the right to tag along. "He's right, you know," Clarke admitted after a moment, like the words physically pained her to say. "You had a close call earlier today, Octavia. And besides, Elodie is going to need your help getting around."

I opened my mouth, about to declare that I would need no such thing, but the glares that both Bellamy and Clarke sent me shut me up right away. They reminded me, oddly enough, of my parents for a moment...

Atom, one of Bellamy's guard dogs, leaped at the chance to get closer to Octavia. His smile was as infectious as it was dangerous, and that startled me. It was soft, just a tilt of his lips as he raked his hands through his thick, wavy black hair. "I'm here for you," Atom breathed, and because we were all standing so close in that moment, I had no idea whether he was talking to me or Octavia. Octavia and I gave him matching unimpressed looks and turned back to Bellamy and Clarke. I could feel both Lottie and Monty's gazes on the back of my head, but I didn't look back at them quite yet. Clarke was moving away after recruiting Bellamy because he had a gun, and the Blake boy started to follow her, scowling all the way.

"Murphy?" he called. The other boy edged forward, gray-blue eyes sharp in the dim sunlight. "Follow me." He seemed delighted to have been picked, and he pushed away from the crowd to go join Clarke and Bellamy. "And Atom?" Bellamy's dark eyes were coals in a fireplace. "My sister doesn't leave this camp. Is that clear?" Even though the distance between Bellamy and Atom was great in that moment, the threat felt solid. Atom gave a curt nod, his tan skin turning to molten gold in a sudden splurge of sunlight.

If he let Octavia go, he was dead.

"I don't need a babysitter," the younger Blake sibling huffed, sending her brother an exasperated look. She eyed the group of boys that had gathered around us with disinterest, and I rolled my eyes. They were practically drooling over her already.

"You're Elodie's babysitter, remember?" Bellamy shot the group of boys around us a warning look, and Atom stepped forward to block their view of Octavia. "Anybody touches her, they answer to me." The boys looked sheepish for half a second, ducking their heads in feigned shame.

Atom levelled his gaze at Octavia after Bellamy turned away. "Don't try anything. You're staying here," he reminded her, and Octavia let her lip curl back from her teeth before she whirled around, heading back in the direction of the dropship.

"I'm gonna make your life a living hell," she told Atom, and I didn't doubt it for a second. Octavia meant what she said, I had come to learn.

Monty, Lottie, and I watched as Clarke and Bellamy's figures retreated into the woods, flanked by Murphy, Wells, and Finn. They were an odd little group, and I was personally still surprised that Finn had agreed to go along with them. He wanted to stay close to Clarke, that was true, but he wasn't the courageous spacewalker that he wanted everyone to believe he was.

I shook my head and followed Octavia's path back to the dropship, trying to ignore the whispers that floated behind me as I limped along. The other kids were following us back almost reluctantly, like they wanted to delve into the unknown and rescue Jasper, too.

But Finn had been right about one thing-rescuing Jasper wasn't an adventure. It would be dangerous, and there wasn't a guarantee that all of them would come back alive. I swallowed hard and thought of Bellamy, all brashness and assholery until his sister was involved. For Octavia's sake, I hoped he returned. I thought of Eden suddenly, Eden who had been driven out of my mind because my own pain and fear had become all-consuming. And that terrified me.

I had always put Eden's needs first. She was the most important thing in my life, and my own needs were practically erased by her own. Until they weren't. I felt sick, and I increased my pace as much as my wounded leg would allow. Earth was changing me, changing my priorities and my judgement, and I was afraid of what was to come. Who was this Elodie, so consumed by anger at the Ark and trivial fights among delinquents that she almost forgot that her sister was unconcious and maybe would stay that way?

I wasn't sure of anything anymore, least of all myself. Lottie skipped to keep up with me, my long legs carrying me much further as I strode ahead. She seemed to pick up on the concern in my eyes, because she let out a small sigh and said, quietly, "Drew and I have been watching her, Twinsie. There's no new developments but..." Lottie batted her hair away from her face and tried to smile. "That doesn't mean anything yet. There's still plenty of time for her to wake up."

I couldn't speak. I didn't know what to say-that maybe I was more afraid of the person I would become if Eden didn't wake up than I was concerned about her actually _waking_ up? That phrase in itself was a terrible, dirty thing, and I could barely handle saying it in my head, let alone aloud.

There were loud noises from all around me, and it didn't take me long to figure out why. Finn's instructions to build a wall were being taken to heart, and dozens of the kids were gathering wood, using illegal knives that they had somehow smuggled to sharpen branches into spears. Monty winced and ducked his head at the sight, and I couldn't help but feel for him. Up ahead, Octavia was flirting with some nameless boy with an easy-to-forget face and an even easier-to-please expression. Atom watched like a hawk, leaning up against a tree that cast shade onto a group of girls who were braiding each other's hair from where they lay sprawled on the ground. I recognized two of them, Willow and Harper, the girls that had been best friends practically since birth and had lived just a few homes down from my family when we all lived aboard the Ark.

Willow watched me walk by with a disturbed look on her face, stopping her hair ministrations to watch me pass. Harper cast me a long look down her narrow nose and then turned to a blonde girl around thirteen, trying to seem distinterested. "C'mon, Charlotte, you're next," I heard her murmur, but I didn't stop to say hello. There would be no point, really. Eden had gotten along with Harper and Willow-she had known them and they thought they had known her. But I was a stranger, an imperfect replica that had invaded peoples' lives and was dishonest about my own. A pang shot through my chest, and I picked up my pace again, the dropship in sight.

Monty veered off before we could get there, startled by all the noises and activity of the camp. There was something determined in his eyes though, something that spoke of the intelligence Clarke had so easily complimented. There was a makeshift tent set up a few feet away, big enough for a few people to crouch down in if needed. Monty jerked his thumb at it and gave me a questioning look. "I'm going to go...I have an idea, Elodie, and I'm going to go-"

"You're fine," I assured him, and suddenly, I became aware that Monty didn't want to leave me. He was still aware that I was hurt, and the familiarity between he and Lottie didn't seem to mean that he trusted her. Plus, he had gathered by the looks that I had received from Harper and Willow that I wasn't exactly the most well-liked or trusted in the camp. He was still trying to protect me.

Some part of me wanted to be insulted, because I had spent years cultivating a facade that kept not only me, but my whole family, safe until Jasper had stepped in and ruined the whole thing. I knew how to protect myself. But there was a warmth in my chest as I took in Monty Green, who was dirty and rumpled from our journey and forlorn because of the loss of his best friend. He cared, and it wasn't for Eden, because I wasn't pretending anymore. He was worried about _me._ "I'm going to be in the dropship if you need to find me," I told him, coming to a halt. Lottie was anxious beside me, trying to look anywhere but Monty. Monty's eyes met my own, and I allowed myself to smile. "Go with your idea, brainiac. We'll catch up soon."

Monty's shoulders relaxed, and her offered me a tired smile before crouching down to enter the tent made of leftover parachute and wood. Lottie hooked her arm through mine when he was out of sight, green eyes clouding over briefly until we came to the edge of the dropship. Atom was calling my name from a few feet away, jogging over with something like fear dancing in his eyes. His hair stuck up in a disarray on his head, and I wanted to snicker at how young it made him look. Lottie snorted for me. "I turned around for one minute to talk to Willow, and Octavia's gone," he grunted. "She ran off, even though Bellamy told her-"

I held up my hand and raised my eyebrows. "She's sixteen, Atom. And she hates listening to anyone, Bellamy included. Octavia does things her own way."

Atom shook his head and gave a huff. "Well, her way is going to get me killed by her brother." His dark eyes met mine, and then Lottie's. "Did either of you happen to see which way she went? Because Elodie, Bellamy left you in charge of her before and-"

"She's not Baby Blake's keeper," Lottie chimed. "And no, we haven't seen her. Just look for a trail of horny boys, though, and I'm sure you'll be heading in the right direction." Lottie's smirk was almost enough to make me laugh. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward into the dropship, giving Atom a small wave goodbye. Or maybe a dismissal. "Ta."

Lottie didn't wait for me to catch up. She dropped my hand and walked ahead of me, weaving between seats and debris from the crash. Many people had come in and tried to salvage what they could, so the place was even more of a wreck than it had been before. Lottie seemed to know where she was going, though. In the back of the dropship, Drew had made a makeshift bed for Eden. It was made of used parachute and what looked like the the thin cushions from the surrounding seats, and Eden seemed to be resting comfortably. Her face was still bruised, but the swelling seemed to have gone down a bit. Drew had folded her hands over her stomach, which was slightly concerning because she was so still. She looked almost...dead.

I shook that thought from my head and crouched down next to her, my leg screaming in protest as I sat on my knees and took her clammy hand in my own. Drew was propped up against the wall next to us, his knees close to his chest. His hands were fiddling with a wire, which he continued to twist into different shapes even as he watched me settle next to my sister. "How did it go?" He asked, his voice ringing loudly throught the silence of the dropship. I winced and squeezed Eden's hand, trying with all my will to force her to squeeze mine back. She didn't.

Lottie sat down next to me, crossing her legs and leaning back on the palms of her hands. She tilted her head back and looked up at the metal ceiling, waiting me to answer. I inhaled and exhaled, once, twice, and then met Drew's gaze evenly and answered: "Not well." I explained to him how I had been attacked by a creature that shouldn't have even existed, and how Jasper had been taken by people who shouldn't have even existed. And then I told both Drew and Lottie what no one but my sister and I knew-Jasper had been the reason that my parents had been Floated, the reason why Eden and I had been caught and imprisoned. I couldn't keep it in anymore-the words were burning in my throat even as I spoke them.

The cousins stared at me in shocked silence as I finished my tale, ending on the note that Jasper had saved me, but I honestly didn't think he was worth saving. There wasn't disgust in their eyes when I finished, either. They looked almost...understanding. And it dawned on me then, in that moment, that I knew nothing about either of them besides the fact that they were cousins. I let the metal floor bite into my skin, unsure of how to move to adjust my legs without irritating my wound. Eden's hand was still in mine. I couldn't bear to let it go-I needed to feel her pulse to reassure myself that she was still with us.

"So-what's your story?" I finally asked into the silence. Lottie's head jerked to the side, and she seemed surprised that I was asking. Not defensive, just surprised that I was taking interest in either of them.

"It's a long one," Drew began quietly, stopping his fiddling with the wire in his hands. His blonde hair was pushed to one side of his head, held in place with sweat, and his green eyes were dark in the shadows, reminding me of the trees in the woods that we had escaped from.

I rocked back and landed on my butt, grimacing slightly as my thigh protested, skin stretching too far. "We've got time," I told him, because it was true.

"From the beginning?" Lottie asked Drew, and all the bravado she normally had in her voice was lost. She looked almost-afraid. Or maybe nervous was the better word.

"The beginning," Drew agreed, his hands on either of his knees. His lips parted, and then he pursed them, trying to gather what he wanted to say. "We...we're here for actual crimes, Elodie. I think you need to know that first, and keep that in mind." I nodded, unease creeping into my system. Drew seemed to grow more confident as he continued to speak. "I told you before that Lottie's grandmother was my great-aunt. She was my grandfather's younger sister, and she...she was like you," Drew said to me, leaning forward slightly. "She was the second child, illegal and unplanned. My grandfather's parents, luckily enough, had friends that were willing to take her in. They'd had a sickly daughter that rarely left their home, and she had died before her second birthday. They took my great-aunt, Lottie's grandmother, as their own child and raised her. But somehow..." Drew pursed his lips. "Well, none of the illegal kids can stay hidden forever."

"She was treated terribly afterward," Lottie added, her eyes darkening. She was twisting her hair around her fingers at an alarming speed and chewing on her lower lip. "They didn't-they didn't lock her up like they did you and your sister, but everyone treated her like a pariah. Like being the second child was a disease." Lottie frowned. "It marred our family name, and people aboard the Ark aren't quick to forgive and forget." Lottie looked up suddenly, and there were tears in her eyes. "My grandma was a good woman, you know? But because of her situation, she was never allowed to marry. People said it wasn't 'right'." Lottie gave a bitter laugh, and Drew shifted so that his leg was pressed up against hers. "She had my dad with some random guard that felt sorry for her, and he was Floated for just interacting with her. My Grandma Laurie raised my dad by herself after that, and Drew's grandfather helped out occasionally."

"His name was Everett," Drew said, cradling his head in the palm of one of his hands. "He and Laurie were really close, and after Laurie had Adrian, Lottie's dad, they became basically inseperable. Adrian was treated like his mother had been, even though he was an only child. My grandpa still was harrassed, but his son, my dad, he was treated better than his cousin by far. It wasn't fair, honestly, and everyone knew that, but no one stopped treating the Wulffs like they were anything other than trash."

Lottie grimaced. "It was passed down to me and Drew." Her fingers were bleeding where she had picked away scabs. When I looked closer, I realized that her hands were covered in tiny white scars, no doubt from constantly picking scabs off her knuckles. "Fancy that." Lottie wiped the blood on her shirt and looked over at me. "No one would forget it, and I was tired of being treated like shit by the privileged, especially." Lottie looked away. "I needed an escape, and I needed to create my own reputation. So I...burned things for kicks." She folded her hands on her lap, and Drew sat rigid beside her. "Arson. It wasn't like I couldn't control it...I'm not a pyromaniac. But I liked to see things burn that meant something to the privileged. I broke into a Council member's home and-and I burned their family photos in their kitchen sink."

Lottie ducked her head, looking slightly ashamed. "I was just so _angry, _y'know? I wanted to see everything burn. And then..." Lottie swallowed and stopped playing with her hair. "I lit a part of Farm Station on fire," she said quietly. Her voice wobbled. "The Greens owned that part of it, and even though they weren't privileged, they held a lot of weight on the Ark because they were in charge of all the pharmaceuticals aboard. I just-it was supposed to be just a small portion, and it made me feel better, until it spread and they almost caught me."

"Someone did catch her," Drew intoned. "More than someone. Monty Green and one of the guards that watched over his family put out the fire. Monty begged for the guard, Thatcher, to keep it quiet. He didn't want to see Lottie put in the Sky Box for what she had done." Drew's voice was distant. "He just wanted to let it go, but Thatcher...He wasn't a good guy. He-"

"He guarded my cell sometimes when I was in the Sky Box," I said abruptly, cutting Drew off. "He was the worst, the bastard. And there were stories about him..." I shivered. I saw Thatcher's hulking form in my mind, his ruddy face and beady eyes made worse only by his shaved head and the snarling smile he always wore. He was vicious, and he loved torturing prisoners. The stories about him always gave me nightmares when I was still in the Sky Box.

"All the stories were true," Lottie croaked, and she had pulled her legs up to her chest so she cling to them. There was horror in her eyes, dripping from the corners of her mouth. My stomach flopped. There had been rumors that Thatcher had been taking advantage of a girl that he had information on...and passing her around to all who wanted some of her, so long as he kept his mouth shut about what she had done.

I covered my mouth with my free hand, bile rising in my throat. Lottie... "He was a monster," she said, her voice cracking. She brushed traitorous tears from her cheeks, closing her eyes tightly. "The things he did, the things he told me...He talked shit about my family, and then he offered me up to his buddies like I was a fucking prize he had won." Lottie finally met my eyes, and I could do nothing, say nothing. "I couldn't tell anyone, and Monty didn't know. T-Thatcher said he would cut me a deal, but Monty didn't know what that entailed. And neither did I, at the time. I didn't tell anyone, not my parents and not Drew. Until I-I couldn't take it anymore." Lottie swiped a hand across her cheeks again. "I told Drew everything not even a month before we were sent down here." Lottie looked over at her cousin. "Thatcher found out, and he ratted me out. He'd told me-" she laughed hysterically-"that he had been doing me a favor all this time, and I had ruined my chance of freedom. But there was no freedom for me. They put me in the Sky Box, and Drew was the only one who believed my story about Thatcher."

"I wasn't just going to let him walk free," Drew said quietly, folding his hands on his lap. "Not after what he had done. There was no way." His knuckles were white. "I had to do it, because he would have just kept going. He would have done the same thing to other girls, and I couldn't let that happen." Drew met my eyes, green on brown, and then said, so distinctly that I couldn't have interpreted it any other way: "I killed him."

I was suddenly very, very dizzy. I was slowly beginning to see the changes in Drew from just the moment I had spent with him at the Unity Day Ball. He had spun me around then, his smile eager and eyes fierce. Now his expression matched the one he had worn then, but he hadn't allowed himself to be that passionate in while. Because too much fierceness had lead to someone's death, and though Drew saw it as justified, he had still killed someone. That didn't ever leave your mind. That's why he was muted now, a solemn, wary version of the boy that I had danced with so briefly. He had allowed himself to become a killer in order to rescue his cousin. And wasn't that a noble thing? Wasn't that the right thing to do, since no one else would have done it?

"That's why I hadn't seen Thatcher in over a month," I breathed. He had used to come in my cell at least once a week to unleash cruel taunts. And then he hadn't come back, and Nell, ever silent, had refused to tell me what had happened to him. Not like I had been complaining about his absence, because he was a raging asshole, but...it had made me wary. And now I finally had an answer-Drew had killed him.

"Yes." Drew rolled his head to the side and tapped Lottie's elbow twice gently, a fond smile on his lips. There was something rare and wrecked in his expression, and Lottie seemed very aware of that. She flicked him on the ear and gave a watery smile back, wiping away the last traces of her tears, seeming embarrassed for having shed them. "They put me in the Sky Box, but there was an argument among the Council whether or not to go ahead and Float me." He retracted his hand and rubbed the back of his neck. "My eighteenth birthday is tomorrow, and they were eager to get rid of me. Murderers have no chance of review, you know," he went on hollowly. "Especially when they admit they don't regret their crime."

"How did your.." I searched for words. I still wasn't used to this, being myself and not having to think so hard about trying to come across as Eden. "How did you parents take it?" Drew cringed, and I immediately regretted the question.

"Not well. I-I come from a good family. My mom is a teacher and my dad is an engineer. They didn't understand how I could do something like...killing. I tried to tell them that it had to be done, but my mom insisted that there was always another way." Drew's eyes were red, and he looked like he was on the verge of tears. I clutched Eden's cold hand to my chest and held his gaze as steadily as I could. "And maybe there was another way, but I didn't see it, and who knows how far things would have gone? I couldn't just sit there, knowing that they were hurting Lottie and doing nothing about it." Drew started to twist the metal wire around his fingers again. "So I _made_ it so there was something I could do about it. I took a plant leaf from Farm Station, knowing that it was poisonous to humans, and laced Thatcher's drink with its oils. He died a few hours later of internal bleeding." His words were flat.

Lottie closed her eyes again, rubbing her temples. Her white-blonde hair was frizzing in the heat, but her sweat made it stick on her face and neck at odd places. "It was the least that I could do, because Lottie had it shitty enough at home anyway, and then they threw her into the Sky Box."

My eyebrows must have shot up at 'shitty home life', because Lottie quickly elaborated. "My dad was never home, not really, because he was constantly working on something or another. He actually worked with Clarke Griffin's father to help maintain the Ark." Lottie's eyes took on a faraway look. "And my mother died from an outbreak of the flu that they could just barely contain. I was only four when that happened, so I don't really remember her much, but it messed up my dad. He remarried so I would have someone to look after me but..." Lottie shuddered. "She's a terrible woman. I hated it at home, except when I could escape with Raven for a while, and school was the only place where I really felt like I belonged. But then I started a fire I didn't know how to stop." The glazed look faded from Lottie's eyes when she looked at me. "That's why I want my wristband off, Elodie. For me, there's no one up there that really gives a damn. When my dad found out what Thatcher was doing to me, he told me it was best if I just stayed quiet." Her lips twisted up in a parody of a smile. "So I say let them fend for themselves, because only one person fucking fought for _me_, and he's already here."

We were all silent for a moment, listening to nothing but Eden's faint breathing. There was so much to take in-both Lottie and Drew's stories were intertwined, and they had fought hard to protect each other in a world where fighting for others was practically a death sentence. Drew may have killed Thatcher, and Lottie may have been a former arsonist, but beyond that, they were just two kids who had been given the short end of the stick in life. They were like me. And I couldn't bear to judge them for what had happened in their past. It was like Bellamy had said-we weren't prisoners anymore. We had a choice to be whoever we wanted.

And I didn't want to be the Ark's bitch.

I hauled myself to my feet and released Eden's hand, gently laying it back on her stomach. Then I looked to both Lottie and Drew, who were waiting for me to either stay or run. Good thing I was tired of running. I offered Lottie my hand, and she gave me a wide smile, pearly white teeth glinting in the dim light filtering in through the dropship door. I pulled her to her feet, and Drew stood up too and stretched, his eyes trained on his shoes instead of me or his cousin. He was embarrassed about being so open, especially in a place where too much trust could get you killed, so I let him have a moment to gather himself.

We had been in the dropship for a little over an hour, and my legs had gone numb from sitting in one spot for so long. I glanced over at Eden, still resting peacefully, and sighed. "I need to go check up on Monty. He's supposed to be working on a way to contact the Ark like Clarke wanted." I wrinkled my nose, and Lottie did the same. Clarke was adamant about seeing her mother again, but the majority of us didn't want to contact the Ark. Monty, I felt, was just doing what was asked of him so he could try to take his mind off of Jasper.

I jerked my thumb to the exit. "I think Eden should be fine here for a minute, since we'll all literally just be in the tent next door." Drew nodded and cast one last long look at my sister before he walked out the door in front of Lottie and I, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight. Lottie kicked a clod of dirt out of the way and jogged to catch up with Drew, wanting him by her side, no doubt, if she had to face Monty. I hung back for a moment, wary of leaving Eden alone even for a second. There were kids here that weren't killers with a conscious, like Drew. They were the people that were actually lethal, and I didn't trust them around my sister.

Finally, I stepped out of the dropship and walked over to the tent where Monty was stationed, pulling back the flap and stooping so I could climb inside. The interior was just as sparse as expected, and crouched in the middle of the floor, fiddling with the wristband on Octavia's arm, was Monty. Both Drew and Lottie were standing in the corner, watching Monty use some sort of metal tool that looked vaguely like a screwdriver to prod at Octavia's arm. I nearly wrecked into Atom, who was waiting impatiently in front of the tent flap. He gave me a stiff nod and looked back to Octavia. "Are you sure about this?" Monty asked dubiously, pausing for a second. He pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Your brother won't approve of you helping us contact the Ark."

Octavia shook her dark head and frowned. "He's not my keeper. Let's just do this. Let's do it." She waited as Monty began working again, twisting the screwdriver-like tool at a certain angle. Octavia grunted out in pain, and Atom stepped forward, his eyebrows furrowing. "Ah! Ow! Son of a..." Octavia rubbed her wrist and looked down at the tender skin of her wrist, which was now missing her wristband. Monty held the device in his hands and then brought it up to his face to inspect it. We all watched him silently, almost holding our breath.

Monty finally shook his head in frustration and let out a sigh. "Sorry. Dead."

Octavia chewed on her lip, her face blank, but her eyes spoke of her disappointment. "Oh."

Monty clutched the wristband in his hand and turned to the thin wall behind him, muttering, 'dammit' under his breath.

"If we can't take it off," Octavia began, "how do you expect to turn it into a radio?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Is that what you've been trying to do? That's impressive." Monty's smile was almost as flimsy as the tent walls around him.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, it's the least I can do, since Clarke and the others are out there looking for Jasper..."

I put my hand on Monty's shoulder, and he froze, swallowing hard. "I know you're worried," I murmured, ducking my head so Monty would meet my eyes. "Jasper's like a brother to you."

Monty nodded. He looked from me up to the ceiling. "He may not be my real brother...But he's always been there. Every memory I have, there's Jasper." His voice caught, and he shook his head again, frustrated. He dropped Octavia's dead wristband to the ground. "I should be out there."

Lottie finally piped up. "Hey, they'll be back anytime now. Then you won't have to worry so much, m'kay?" Lottie was picking at the scabs on her fingers again, and her head was ducked close to Drew's shoulder. Monty shot her a look of surprise, probably since he hadn't spoken with her since she caught his parents' livelihood on fire, and then the look turned afraid when he met Drew's gaze. Apparently he knew that Drew had been labeled 'murderer' with a capital M. He gave Lottie a nod of acknowledgement and said nothing, but there was a small, barely there smile on his lips.

"Go on, you guys," he finally told us. "I'll be fine." He gestured to the dead wristband on the floor and to the live one on his wrist. "Work to do." I touched Monty's elbow reassuringly and slipped outside, wanting to give him some space. Lottie and Drew were close on my heels, and I held the tent flap open for them.

I heard Octavia say quietly: "Hey, Monty? Jasper would understand why you stayed." Then she followed us outside into the warm evening air, Atom right behind her.

"How is someone who was raised beneath the floor and a girl who grew up in a cubby hole in the wall not complete basket cases?" Atom questioned, running his hands through his hair as he sidled up next to Octavia.

Octavia scoffed, and I shot Atom a sour look. "Who says I'm not?" Octavia shot back innocently, skipping past both Lottie and Drew.

"Haven't you heard the stories about me?" I drawled in response, my eyes narrowed. Atom looked nervous as he fought to catch up with Octavia. The grass under our feet was tall, but the treading feet back and forth between the dropship and the rest of the camp had pushed it down.

Atom managed to snag Octavia's arm when he caught up to her, and she raised her eyebrows and let her gaze pierce him. "It's because he loves you. Your brother?" Atom's dark eyes were sincere. "You're not a basket case because you were loved."

Something cold ran though me. Than what did that make me, the girl that had been resented by her mother and her twin sister, whose father only looked at her with special fondness out of pity? Atom's words left me feeling empty.

Octavia didn't seem to understand. "Yeah, I'm a lucky girl," she sniped, pulling away from Atom's grasp.

Lottie rolled her eyes pointedly, letting me see, and Drew fought to hold back a smile. They were unaware of how hurt I was, in that moment. I let my expression remain blank. "I'm not saying I had it worse than you, Octavia," Atom clarified, trying to backtrack. "Because I didn't." Octavia came to a complete stop and turned around, folding her arms over her chest. "But you have someone who would do anything for you," he continued. "I envy that."

I bit my tongue. _So do I. So do I._ Bellamy would have died to protect his sister, and I had no doubt in my mind that she would do the same for him. That's what love was, wasn't it? Sacrificing yourself in different ways every day for that person, just so they could be safe and happy. I would have died for my sister, but I didn't think Eden would do the same for me. She wasn't raised to love me-she was raised to think that I was a burden. So yes, I did envy Octavia. Because she had a relationship with her sibling that I didn't think I would ever have with mine.

Octavia shook her head at Atom. "Whatever. I'm going to go fall asleep somewhere. I can't deal with anymore talk." Octavia waved a hand at us and took off, heading toward a thick group of trees several yards away. Atom was left standing there with his mouth open, bewildered. Drew patted him on the back and grinned briefly. It was a nice look to see on his face after the depressing conversation we'd had earlier. Lottie linked arms with me and led me over to the abandoned piece of parachute Willow and Harper had left under the tree where they had been braiding hair eariler. Lottie's bright mood had returned, and she was singing under her breath in a language that I didn't understand, though it sounded vaguely familiar. Dutch, or maybe Danish? I couldn't tell for sure. She curled up against the tree, her knees to her chest, and I let myself sink to the ground next to her, Drew following my lead.

Atom seemed to have gone after Octavia again, but the Blake girl had the right idea about finding somewhere to crash. I was exhausted. I pillowed my head on my arm and curled in on myself on the parachute, the silky surface resting against my face. I closed my eyes, and the sun danced behind my eyelids as I felt another warm body settle next to me. I didn't protest-I didn't really want to. I was already drifting, only semi-aware that I should be in the dropship with my sister instead of sleeping on the ground outside, soaking up sunlight that I couldn't get enought of.

There was nothing that could stop me from falling asleep, though.

XxX

When I woke, I woke to darkness and screaming. My legs were tangled in the parachute, and I jarred my hurt thigh against the ground trying to get up so quickly. I had always been a light sleeper for obvious reasons, but now, I was sluggish and disoriented. I glanced around me, my heart thundering loudly in my chest. Drew was curled up beside me, his blonde head smushed into the parachute, and he groaned and covered his head with his hands at the muffled screaming. Lottie, on the other hand, was wide awake, and she looked terrified, the pupils of her eyes blown wide and her mouth hanging open.

I pulled myself to my feet, trying to gather what the hell was going on. And then I heard it. "They're back!" someone was shrieking.

My shoulders sagged in relief. That was good. That was...good. That meant that there wasn't a group of Grounders attacking us. I rubbed my knuckles against my forehead and squeezed my eyes shut briefly, trying to gather my bearings. I tottered on my feet for a moment, watching as Lottie crouched down and shook Drew's shoulder with enough force to have him careening into sitting position, a wild look in his eyes. "They're back, cousin," Lottie whispered, like it was a secret between the two of them. Or maybe it was to calm him down.

Drew swallowed and ran his fingers through his disheveled hair, something like relief in his eyes. He climbed to his feet beside me, and then we moved as a group toward the source of the yelling. Clarke and Bellamy were toting a good amount of things on their back, and they both looked exhausted beyond belief. Bellamy was holding the carcass of some huge feline, what looked to be a panther. Finn and Wells held a body between them, and Murphy sneered at everyone who approached him. There was an ugly cut on the side of his face from the journey. Everyone crowded around, staring down at Jasper's bloody, mangled body. He looked...very dead. There was dry blood and fresh blood coating every inch of him, and there was some sort of poultice on the wound on his chest. "Is he...?" one of the younger boys asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"He's alive," Clarke replied hoarsely, and in that moment, she looked much older than seventeen. She turned to look at the others gathered around her. "I need boiled water and strips of cloth for a bandage," she instructed, and several kids scampered away to make themselves useful.

Clarke followed them, heading toward the dropship. Both Finn and Wells carried Jasper along between them as silently and gently as they could, trying to the best of their ability not to disturb him. I walked behind them, and Drew stayed with me. Lottie, however, was talking to a girl with large eyes and a pixie cut, who was eagerly nodding to Bellamy as he lifted the feline carcass above his head and boomed: "Who wants food?"

The crowd cheered, hooting Bellamy's name, and Jasper and the rescue mission were forgotten. I walked alongside Finn, and Drew walked beside Wells on the other side, each of us staring down at Jasper's prone form as we went along.

I was relieved he was alive for Monty's sake, but just seeing Jasper again caused a million emotions to war inside of me. I gritted my teeth and settled on relief for now. Relief that Monty's brother was alive.

And speaking of...Without preamble, the flap of the makeshift tent was flung open and Monty came tumbling out, dropping the dead wristband he had been playing with to the ground. There was intense fear and joy fighting for dominance of his face, and as we drew closer, I could see that the fear was winning. Jasper looked dead, completely wrecked to the point of no return, and I could see Monty withering as he took in Jasper's limp limbs, his bloody torso, his lolling head... "He's alive!" I called, because I wasn't close enough to say it normally, and Monty needed to hear it before he crumpled anymore. He had thought, for a moment, that they were bringing him a body to say goodbye to, but at my words, he stood tall and pulled open the flap of the tent, gesturing us to come inside.

The air was stale in the tent, but then again, everything but the clean, fresh air from outside seemed stale now. Finn and Wells settled Jasper onto a hastily made bed of parachute pieces and ripped cushions that Monty had made in hopes that his friend would return. Clarke rushed in a second later, the requested warm water and ripped cloth in her arms. Drew and I watched in silence as Clarke worked, cleaning Jasper's wound as he lie stone-still on the bed of canvas beneath him. Clarke worked efficiently, her mouth set in a firm line as she patched Jasper up to the best of her ability. Wells had wandered out of the tent at some point, and no one protested when he left. Clarke was too busy to notice, and no one else cared enough to make him stay.

Monty watched the process from one of the walls, his eyes hooded. Drew leaned up against me, and suddenly, his warmth flooded through me as a reassurance. I could almost feel him lying next to me again, his shoulder pressed against mine as we drifted off to sleep. My cheeks heated up immediately, and I ducked my head down to my chest so I could glare down at my boots. Drew didn't move away until Clarke announced that she was finished. Monty stepped forward, eyes raking over Jasper's still-battered form. "He's stable now, but without medicine..." Clarke murmured, trailing off. I looked to Monty. As it turned out, there was still something to fear yet.

Clarke placed a hand on Monty's shoulder, and Finn did the same as he passed, his eyes full of sympathy. Monty just continued to stare down at Jasper. I pursed my lips and looked up at Drew, whose eyes were trained somewhere outside the tent. "He'll be alright, Monty." My voice was so soft that you couldn't hear it if you weren't listening. "We'll move him to the dropship with Eden in a little bit, okay?" Monty gave a wooden nod and crouched down next to Jasper as we all started to file out into the chaos of the campground. A small group of people had stoked a huge fire, and the whole mass of kids were gathered around, chattering excitedly as the panther meat crackled over the flames, a promise of dinner.

Bellamy stood beside the fire, and it danced in his eyes as he stood proudly beside his kill. There was a knife in his hands, and he and Murphy were hard at work taking the wristbands off of all our fellow criminals. After each person had their wristband cut off, Mbege ushered them down the line to Lottie, who was handing them their portions of meat. Her smile was wide, and as she passed a little boy his food, I saw that her pale wrist was bare as well. Clarke and Finn were silent next to me for a moment, and then Clarke said breathlessly: "They're taking off their wristbands for food? No way. I...I won't do it." She shook her head in disbelief, and her blonde waves flew up around her at the motion.

Finn looked at her through his eyelashes and nodded. "You don't have to." Then he strode forward and grabbed a hunk of meat from the spit, trying to turn around to offer some to Clarke. Bellamy was there in an instant though, and his dark eyes flashed.

"Whoa, whoa." He pushed Finn back a step, but Spacewalker gathered his balance and simply offered him a cold stare. "Wait, wait, wait. What, you think you play by different rules?" Bellamy demanded, inches away from being nose to nose with Finn.

Finn let the icy look melt from his face and offered Bellamy a smirk instead. "I thought there were no rules?" he quipped, and his words hung in the open air as he shoved an overeager Murphy out of his way with his shoulder, going back to Clarke's side.

They had made their choice, and I was about to make mine. What Drew did was up to him. I stepped forward, and Bellamy regarded me with curiosity. "Want to join them?" he asked, and the words were almost threatening, caught between good-natured and dangerous.

I didn't look back at Clarke or Finn when I thrust my wrist out and said loudly: "I want you to get this thing the hell off my wrist."

Bellamy smiled then, and it was a sudden, stunning thing that made me blink. He touched my shoulder and then pointed a few feet away to where Lottie waited, chewing on her piece of meat happily. "Line starts there, kid. Go get some dinner." I nodded to him, aware of Finn and Clarke's disbelieving gazes locked on the back of my head, but I paid them no heed. Instead, I grabbed Drew's wrist and pulled him with me toward his cousin, my stomach rumbling as the smell of fresh meat wafted into the open air of the night.

Behind me, Bellamy called to Atom to go with him to take first watch, and in front of me, Lottie called out something crude about eating cats to Drew, giggling. Drew rolled his eyes amiably and told her to go Float herself, and Lottie gave that infectious tinkling laugh of hers again. I felt myself smiling, even though I had basically just eradicated whatever faith Clarke and Finn had in me before. I couldn't help it, though. I wanted my bracelet off, and so did the Wulff cousins. There was no other way for me to feel free, completely severed from my former life.

The smoke rose up into the sky, and Lottie and Drew and I collapsed onto the ground beside two younger boys that were taking turns trying to hit on Lottie. She wrinkled her nose and tried to give them some good-natured tips between mouthfuls of meat, and I couldn't stop grinning. Drew nudged my foot with his a little bit later, after the food was gone and people were spreading out on their backs to look up at the stars. The moon hung heavy in the sky, full and yellow between the cover of misty gray clouds. Luckily, Drew had tapped my good leg, otherwise there was a good possibilty that I would have punched him in the nose. "It's a nice night," he murmured, pushing a strand of my hair away from my neck. His warm breath ghosted against the shell of my ear, and I shivered. "Maybe I could take you up on that dance, now?"

I looked up at Drew then, and in the light of the fire, he was rendered stark and handsome, the planes of his cheekbones melding into full lips, golden eyelashes lit aflame and framing deep green eyes that were just as fierce as they had been a year ago. I smiled up at him shyly and leaned forward, wanting. Lottie was curled up beside the girl with the pixie cut a few feet away, and whatever she was muttering to her was making the other girl cry in laughter. They weren't paying any attention to us. I leaned closer, about to whisper 'yes, please, let's dance' when a voice urgently saying my name sliced through the noise of the crowd.

I pulled away from Drew immediately, my heart catching in my throat as I sat up and turned around. Sure enough, standing on the opposite side of the fire pit, barefoot, was the owner of that voice. Eden was trembling, the light of the fire catching her bruised face and making her look even more battered than she actually was. Everyone went silent when I climbed to my feet, almost tripping over one of the branches we were using for firewood, and ran to meet her. I pulled her into my arms and clung to her with everything I had, tears welling up in my eyes. Eden wrapped her shaking arms around me and started to cry, sobs wracking her body. "Elodie...Elodie, I didn't think-you were gone and I-" She didn't let go of me. "I'm really sorry," she gasped. "I'm really, really sorry, this is all my fault..."

She wasn't making any sense, but I continued to stroke my sister's hair and murmur reassurances to her until she finally asked, voice hoarse: "What happened when I was asleep?"

I looked over at Drew and Lottie, who were staring at my twin and I in wide-eyed wonder. There was going to be a lot to explain.

**Thank you guys for reading, and I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! I love putting in original stuff, so I hope you were entertained by the Wulff cousins' backstory and also the inner workings of Elodie's mind. I apologize for the month long delay in an update, but I've been trying my very hardest to focus on this last month of high school. But I only have two days left to go, so you can expect more frequent updates in the future. Again, thank you for all your comments and follows, and leave a comment, if you would, to let me know how you're liking it!**

**~Harley xxx**


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